BrambleStar's Last stand
by Joseph Ida
Summary: A devastating drought has struck the clans, forcing them into very extreme behavior. BrambleStar is trying his best to hold his clan together despite him not wanting or needing any of it from outsiders, even a friendly mutt is forced out despite his offerings. Can He hold it together with what he has or simply waste all 9 of his lives away on meaningless fights of desperation?
1. Prolouge

Prologue

It was on the night of the half-moon on a large estate, two large creatures walked around as they talked in a deep conversation about what was going to happen for the next few moons. The creatures were mutts, but an intelligent group of mutts and as they stopped into the center of the estate the conversation deepened.

"I sense it will be sweltering during the times of plenty." One of the mutts began. "Any suggestions on how we can make it through the season?" He asked to his fellow members.

"I say we should defend our estate and nest from intruders." Another mutt blurted out.

"How about sharing our food with Tyranno's gang?" The large Dane mix asked.

"NO! We can't! He'll murder us if we don't bring the set quota of food to him!" The leader of the Mutts barked at the Dane mix.

"Maybe seek outside help?" The Labrador asked not wanting another season of bloodshed.

"If we could find more mutts nearby, to help us this season of hardship." The leader said knowing there weren't any other groups other than their rivals out there.

"How about we can talk to the cats." A golden and white mutt asked nicely.

"All right but you must bring them gifts to show that we aren't here to harm them." The leader told the mutt.

"Remember, kindness and generosity is the key to making friends." A thick nosed hound told the mutt.

"And bring your crows with you to act as your early warning system if something goes wrong." The Dane mix advised him.

"What about the food? We need enough so we can make it through ourselves." Another mutt asked with concern.

"Then we will spend more time hunting this season of plenty while it lasts." The leader told the mutt.

A large cloud began to block out the half-moon causing the light to become dimmer signaling to the mutts that the meeting was over and everyone had to head for home. All the mutts split up and began to walk away to their nests to sleep off the night. But before the golden and white mutt departed for his nest, the leader of the mutts went up and gave him some stern advice.

"Make sure you're on your best behavior, we don't need any more problems on top of the problems that we have at this current moment." He warned him.

"I promised that I would be able to handle these cats and be able to understand them." He responded ready to handle his task.

"Now that is a good friend. Now get to your nest and rest up for sunrise. You will meet these cats at the full moon." He said with a smile across his muzzle.

And with that, the two mutts turned and headed back to their nests as a slight drizzle began to water the landscape for the last time of the season.


	2. Character Introductions

Character Introductions

Bramblestar: Current Leader of Thunder Clan, A dark tabby tom with amber eyes.

Cloudtail: A thick white tom with blue eyes.

Leafpool: A small pale brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes.

Squirrelflight: Current Thunder Clan deputy. A dark flame colored She-cat with green eyes.

Poppyfrost: A dappled, pale, Tortoiseshell and white She-cat with light blue eyes.

Cherryfall: A ginger She-cat with amber eyes.

Molewhisker: A large brown and cream Tom with amber eyes.

Alderheart: A dark ginger tom with a white tipped tail with amber eyes.

Unknown Mutt Gang

Gastonia: A gold and white mutt with thick fur on his back with bright brown eyes. (Loosely based off of Lucky from the Survivors stories)

Tyranno: Only mentioned.


	3. Stranger meeting

It was full moon as the clans gathered at the island to discuss how everything has been for the past moon. Many of them however, weren't prepared for the heat coming this early to the clans weren't used to this and as a result, the rivers on the territories were slowly shrinking down and this was the first thing that they needed to establish and take action. Bramblestar was the first to address the situation at hand.

"Fellow cats of the clans!" He shouted as loudly as he could. "I would like to address that we have entered another drought I believe. And we need to prepare for something like this so it doesn't end in disaster like last time." He had clear memory of what happened during the last drought of cats getting stuck And Dovewing fighting off the beavers after she told him everything about it. "We should set some rules for our clans until the drought is over." He told the clans.

"I think that Shadow clan cats such as me and others should be able to gather water at night time when the temperature isn't scorching or humid." Tigerstar mewed trying to keep things in order so no chaos will ensure.

"I say River clan should have the entire lake again, we mostly eat fish and I don't want to end up starving again unlike last time." Mistystar mewed setting her own quarrels to make sure things don't end up disastrous.

"Your clan owning the whole lake!" A Wind clan warrior shouted out. "Maybe we need the lake too so you don't hog all the food!" He continued to yowl in rage.

"We eat fish. You got the Moor." She mewed trying to be justified with her reasoning to make it clear.

"Maybe the Moor doesn't supply us with enough fresh kill." He said aggressively before a fight broke out between the two clans.

"We shouldn't resort to violence to solve our problems." Tigerstar shouted in an attempt to break up the fight.

But it was no use as the two clans began to bite and scratch each other yowling at the top of their lungs. As the night wore on, the fight continued to spin out of control.

"ENOUGH!" Bramblestar yowled in anger stopping the fight automatically came to a standstill. "We can't fight each other over something that might help us all through this crisis!" He continued to shout to get everyone into order.

"Bramblestar, we got a visitor." Molewhisker addressed to the leader about his coming.

"Bring him in." He mewed tending to some cats wounds.

A gold and white Mutt has entered the gathering place. Three crows rested on his back as he carried fresh kill to the center.

"I've never seen a dog bringing gifts to us." Tigerstar mewed in shock while tending to an apprentice's wounds.

"Let's kill him!" The Wind clan tom mewed still wanting a fight.

"Wait!" Bramblestar shouted trying to keep him silenced. "He has something to say to us." He mewed assuring to the others that he isn't that dangerous. "Okay what do you want?" He asked.

"I brought some food for you as a greeting." The mutt said trying to reduce any signs of aggression. "I've come to tell you that we all maybe stuck in a trap this Greenleaf." He said.

"We know that." Molewhisker assured the stranger.

"So I must be going." The mutt told the cats. "If you spot me, I'll be wandering around the lake." He said before he turned around and he plotted off.

"Wait." Bramblestar told the mutt wanting him to stay "I think I may want to speak to you and Molewhisker alone." He mewed.

"All right I'll stay." He said as he plotted back to the gathering place and he lay down.

As the sun began to rise over the land it was clear that the gathering was over as the cats began to head back to the clans and Bramblestar and Molewhisker were the last to leave with the mutt. As they trotted along the leader wanted to know who this mutt was.

"Let's start thing simple." Molewhisker mewed. "I am Molewhisker and this is the Leader Bramblestar." He mewed slowly making sure the mutt understood.

"I'm Gastonia." The mutt told the two cats in a nice friendly manner.

"I've never seen a mutt this nice." He said. "And you wander around the lake?"

"I wouldn't trust that dog." Bramblestar warned. "He might be vicious ready to kill us."

"Why would I kill someone?" Gastonia asked puzzled. "I won't use my teeth or claws in a fight." He admitted.

After they said their goodbyes, the two cats padded back to the camp after discussing how nice the newcomer is. As they arrived they told them everything that happened.

"A fight broke out?" Cloudtail asked puzzled.

"And you met a dog that is nice?" Alderheart asked with shock.

"I bet he must have really known us about how we came." Poppyfrost mewed surprised.

"Yeah but this is going to get worse before it gets better." Molewhisker mewed.

The cats began talking about how there is a new friend that helped them out. The conversation lasted a while before Bramblestar mewed out a meeting to happen.

"What happened at the gathering last night has made me concerned? I will head to the Moon Pool to refill me lives to make sure I make it through this drought so I can continue to lead all of you." He mewed "Squirrelflight, You're in charge of the camp while I'm gone." He mewed.

"Sure thing I will keep it in order." She mewed confident as she went to take care of the clan when the leader left to refill his lives.


	4. Drying up

A quarter moon after the gathering, it was proof that Gastonia was right. The rivers around the clans had quickly transformed to streams and prey was slowly beginning to disappear before the cat's very eyes. But that wasn't the worst; both River clan and Wind clan were fighting over to see who can own the lake. Plus the mud around the lake would pose as a trap for anyone wanting to get a drink. Cloudtail was leading a patrol with Leafpool, Cherryfall, and Molewhisker when they spotted something that shouldn't have been there. A deer had gotten itself stuck in the mud trying to get a drink.

"We don't see many deer around here." Cloudtail remarked.

The deer was being surrounded by a large gang of mutts. Before the deer knew what was happening, the mutts pounced on it tearing the deer apart as the water turned scarlet.

"Oh no!" Cherryfall bleated out noticing the deer falling. As the mutts circled taking pieces of the deer for themselves, Leafpool told the young she cat about the dangers of mud.

"Berrynose and Spiderleg got themselves stuck in the mud last time when a drought like this happened." She mewed telling her about it how they had to rescue them from the mud.

"How come I wasn't told about this?" Cherryfall mewed puzzled never hearing anything like this before.

"Because you and Molewhisker weren't even born yet." Leafpool laughed at the two young warriors.

"I think laughter will have to wait until later." Cloudtail said as he spotted a familiar face plot along the mud slowly with the crows riding along his back.

"Oh hello Gastonia how are you doing today? And what's the deer for?" Molewhisker greeted him before diving and asking a few questions to him.

"The deer is being split between us and a dog gang being led by Tyranno." He said.

"Who's Tyranno." Bramblestar mewed as he approached the spot with Squirrelfight, Alderheart, and Poppyfrost as they emerged from the clearing.

"You don't want to know who Tyranno is." Gastonia warned to the clan cats. "He's a tyrannical dog from our rival pack that wants to take the land around him and terrorize anything that lives on it, even the two legs." He said completing the sentence.

Hey uh Gastonia? Can you come to the camp with us?" He asked politely wanting to question him alone.

"Sure." He responded as he picked up a giant hunk of the deer meat as the other dogs headed in the opposite direction back to the farm.

Upon arriving to the camp entrance, the inside of the Thunder clan camp was moving about with other cats. As they wandered into the camp they felt nervous about slipping down the camp. But once they reached the bottom, they safely spread out into different directions. Gastonia puts his hunk of deer meat down and he went to the leader's den where both Poppyfrost and Bramblestar were waiting.

"So Gastonia, how much do you know about clan life?" He asked.

"Not much." He responded being honest.

"I see you have those ravens on your back and why are they on your back?" He asked nicely.

"First off they're crows." He stated. "Second, I can't see very well so I use these crows to alert me of danger and I protect them and give them food." He told them nicely.

"Yeah and when the lake dries up can we eat your crows?" He asked starting to taunt him.

"No you can't I need them to warm me of trouble." He said nervously as he backed out of the den with Bramblestar following him.

"Bramblestar can you stop that you're creeping him out." Poppyfrost mewed to him warning about frightening the stranger.

But Bramblestar didn't listen to the warning as he lunged at Gastonia wanting to tackle him off the ledge but Gastonia moves to the left allowing Bramblestar to miss as he tumbled down landing head first on the camp floor. Gastonia decided to dash out of the camp not wanting to get into any trouble but the damage has already been done due to the fact that Bramblestar did it to himself!

Bramblestar woke up later with a large group of clan members gathered around him. He was dazed and confused about what happened.

"What happened?" He asked as Squirrelflight licked his head where he had landed on it.

"You hit your head on the ground when you tried to tackle him to the ground." Poppyfrost mewed telling him the details about what happened.

"And as a result, you lost a life Bramblestar, you're down to eight." Jayfeather told the leader about the results "You've got to learn to be more careful or you might lose more lives." He told the leader.

"I promise I will be more careful." He mewed as he went to go to his den to rest. However, this was just the beginning of the desperation brought by the drought.


	5. Last quarter

On the night of the last quarter moon, the mutts have gathered to discuss what is happening to the landscape around them.

"I hear the lake is starting to dry up." One of the mutts told the group.

"Prey is getting harder and harder to find." The hound said.

"Soon everything will be as dry as those leaves on the trees." Another mutt has said.

"And it would be easier for fires to start." Said the Labrador with anxiety across his face.

"Fire I don't understand what is going on?" Gastonia asked the others not knowing what the current situation at hand.

"You see Gastonia." The leader said as he began to explain to the golden mutt. "The lake is our source of water and it's where those two legs often do their stuff. When the water flows out it's a sign the water is old then it's replaced with the water flowing in. When these dry spells happen there is no water flowing out nor any water flowing back in so the water becomes locked. Animals often get stuck in the mud when they get their drinks. And as for fire, when the tinder dries up and something smells like smoke, it's clear a fire is happening so remember the escape paths we've shown you." He said as he finished the long conversation.

"Don't worry I will remember everything that I've been taught." Gastonia said to the gang making him feel better.

"Now that is a good mutt." The leader said to his group "You are beginning to learn everything that will be significant to helping you in life. You first know how to speak to cats and know you remember some of the things we've taught you. But we're still trying to create glasses for you to see much more clearly." The leader said to the mutt knowing he is slowly getting better.

Soon the quarter moon began to descend upon the horizon soon being replaced by light. The mutts knew that it was time to head for home and start a new day of the gang.

However, all was not well for the clans, not only was it a sweltering 94 degrees outside, but both the rivers supplying the water were completely dried up and the lake was half full. Wind clan seemed to get more and more aggressive about their hunting space as they wanted more of the lake bed. Bramblestar went to River clan to see what was going on.

"What is going on? I see the clan is miserable." He said with concern on his muzzle.

"The clan is starving since we don't have any fish to feed our clan and plus Wind Clan is nothing more than a bunch of thieves." Miststar mewed. "Last week they took about fifteen fish from the lake!" She yowled.

"Wow I never knew cats can count to fifteen." Poppyfrost mewed surprised seeing how the cats can be somewhat smart. "Wait how can cats count in the first place?" She asked puzzled.

"Because the story demands that River clan has some form of intelligence." Said a familiar mutt like voice as he plotted along the dried up creek to the clan cats.

"Okay One question Gastonia, How did you even get here if the story tells us between the two clans?" Poppyfrost asked in confusion.

"I was over in the barn when I say you two walk so I decided to follow you." He said putting two large trout's down for River clan.

"We can't thank you enough." Miststar mewed in relief. "But we need to take care of the Wind clan problem first." She suggested wanting to take action.

"Yes but can me and Gastonia talk privately first?" Bramblestar mewed to her.

"Sure, but be back in a few." She mewed as she turned to Poppyfrost and decided to talk to her.

Bramblestar led Gastonia to a secluded area where they can speak privately away from everyone else.

"Okay Gastonia I'm going to ask you this and this once, How were you able to spot us despite your vision being poor?" He asked confused.

"I spotted you from a mouse length away and I decided to follow you. He said.

"All right as long as you have a reason for following us here." He mewed assuring him as they walked back.

"So anything from him that we could learn?" Miststar mewed in a cautious manner.

"Nah he just spotted us and decided to follow us." Bramblestar mewed assuring he was not a threat.

"Okay good." She mewed as they went back to discussing what the new plan was to deal with this new threat looming over the horizon.

After the conversation, the cats padded back to the clans as well as waving the dog goodbye telling him to not follow them into something this important. Once they got back to the camp, they began discussing their plans to attack the clan for stealing.


	6. Hidden Traps

First light across the western hills of the clans of the drying up lake, the clan cats began to wake up to get the news of the patrol of the cause of the drying up of the rivers. When the cats came back to the camp, they had confusing news to see what was wrong with the rivers and the drying up of the lakebed.

"What's the cause?" One of the apprentice cats asked out of curiosity.

"Well we know it wasn't beavers this time." A warrior would say.

"How are you completely sure about that? A she-cat mewed puzzled.

"We've checked where they were last time and they just vanished." Cloudtail mewed assuring them trying to be as truthful as possible.

"Even if the wood remains rotting away after we freed the water last time. Ivypool mewed remembering the last yet long drought that ravaged the clans last time.

"I assure you." Molewhisker mewed trying to calm her down.

"We can't assume to have dogs come along and boss us around to give up our lifestyle." Alderheart mewed angry.

"Well at least some are nice that they won't maul us like what they did to my friends." Cloudtail mewed trying to calm them down.

They soon turned away and walked out from the conversation to follow orders given to them by their leader. Today was going to be a very interesting day, Bramblestar padded down to the drying up lake seeing a dead fish at the edge of the lake.

"What is it?" Cherryfall mewed puzzled staring at the dead fish rotting away in the hot sun.

"It's a fish." Bramblestar mewed answering her question.

Unlike Molewhisker who was very cautious of his surroundings, she slowly went to the fish not wanting to break through the mud and sink. Soon a lone tom came to the lakeside as he spotted the two of them. He quickly grew furious thinking they were going to take his food.

"What are you doing with that fish? That's my clan's food!" The tom yowled angrily as he prepared to attack.

"Calm down!" Bramblestar yowled as he moved to protect the she cat. "I'm sure she was just curious about the fish.

"But it's still stealing!" He yowled as he flexed himself getting ready to attack.

"Cherryfall, go back to the camp and get more warriors. This is going to get bloody." He said telling her to go get help.

"Okay." She mewed as she spun around and she quickly took off to the camp.

"I always like a fleeing target." The tom mewed as he charged after her.

Bramblestar knew what to do as he lunged himself onto the tom raking his side with his claws as the tom fell sideways. The two began to bite and scratch each in their faces as fur and blood began to fly all over the dried up shore of the shrinking lake.

Cherryfall ran all the way back to the camp to inform them the Bramblestar was in trouble. As she ran into the camp she found the camp was still full as she rang out the distress call.

"Bramblestar is in trouble and needs our help!" She yowled as she turned and fled the camp.

"Oh no! We can't let this happen!" Alderheart screeched as he followed behind her followed by Berrynose.

Back at the lake, the two of them were still fighting as tried to show who is the boss of the lake, and not get intimidated. The tom with the last of strength leaps onto Brambestar, the force knocks him backwards and the tom sunk his teeth into the leader's throat. Bramblestar wails in agony as he frees himself from the bite and shakes off the tom as he bled from the bite. The tom on the other hand gets ready to charge and as he did so he felt something slip and catch his paws. As he looked down he realized he was sinking into the ground.

Cherryfall arrived with two other cats as they saw the tom was sinking into the ground. Her head turned to the left and she saw Bramblestar went limp fighting off the tom as they ran over to him.

"Get up!" Cherryfall wailed as she buried her head into the leader.

"It's best if we get him some treatment." Alderfall mewed to her.

A little later, they were all waiting at Jayfeather's den for the news on what would happen to their leader as he padded out of his den to tell them what had happened.

"Are you sure about what has happened?" Cloudtail mewed worried.

"Bramblestar had just lost another life, he's down to seven now, but he's going to fine." Jayfeather mewed assuring them that he will be okay.

"He sure was brave fighting off that tough cat." Cherryfall mewed a somber yet hopeful meow.

"It's just that we need to learn to be more careful about what they are doing and what we are doing."

"I definitely agree with you on that." Cloudtail mewed to the young she cat.

Soon a ruffling sound was heard from the bushes As Bramblestar was getting ready to attack whoever leaped out of the bushes.

"Who is it?" Poppyfrost mewed getting ready to leap at the first sign of trouble.

The bushes continue to ruffle showing it was Tigerstar. He walked out of the bushes as he greeted the clan cats warmly.

"Didn't expect you to be here at this moment, is there anything you need to tell us?" Bramblestar mewed trying to question the Shadow Clan leader.

"A meeting is being held at the gathering place of the night of the blood moon. The meeting is being held by a bunch of mutts about the situation that the clans and themselves.

"And when is the blood moon?" Bramblestar mewed curious.

"Tonight the meeting will be." Tigerstar mewed to him as he turned and left back to his clan.

"I think we should go to see what is up." Molewhisker advised to Bramblestar.

"Okay Molewhisker and Poppyfrost, you two are coming with me to the meeting. Squirrelfight, You and Leafpool watch the camp." He ordered the cats to take up positions while he was gone.

"You got it." She mewed to the leader as he got ready and he left with the two cats behind him.

"Hey Cherryfall?" Alderheart mewed.

"Yes?" She mewed puzzled.

"Want to head out to the bushes so I can show something off?" He mewed wanting her attention.

"Sure." She mewed "But you're going to be very careful because neither of us want to be in Jayfeather's den."

The pair of them left as they headed to a secluded area so they can be alone.

 **Author's note: I only make new chapters every Monday since I'm very busy for most of the week with school even on weekends so Monday is my least busy day. I hope you like to see a new chapter.**


	7. Blood Moon

As the blood moon rises over the horizon it was clear tonight was going to be different, a different type of meeting with different creatures. Bramblestar who felt like he wasn't going to like the situation that the mutts had held to talk about the current situation at their paws.

"I don't like what is going to be talked about." He mewed feeling like he wanted another fight.

"Come on be happy that the other clans will be there so you can have others to talk to." Poppyfrost mewed to him trying to cheer him up.

"I just feel stressed about this drought." He mewed not wanting to lose two lives in one day.

"Everyone's stressed but we can pull through." Molewhisker mewed to the leader trying to raise his confidence.

"I swear id Gastonia is at this meeting, I'll kill him." He grumbled knowing he couldn't trust the mutt.

"Don't say that." Poppyfrost mewed to the leader.

The three of them padded all the way to the gathering island. Once they arrived, they were greeted by Wind clan, Shadow clan and the Mutt gang. River clan was nowhere to be seen. Bramblestar saw the mutt he didn't want to see.

"Oh star clan not you." He grumbled in annoyance "What do you want?"

"I was required to come here." Gastonia told him assuring him that he wasn't waiting for a fight to happen.

"But where's River clan?" Bramblestar mewed worried.

"One of their warriors had gotten stuck in the mud and it took them a while to free him." Tigerstar mewed answering his question.

Finally as the skies darkened to a pitch black color, River clan finally arrived with a few of their cats.

"Finally the last clan of Sharp claws has arrived for the meeting." The leader of the mutts said.

"Let's hope the meeting isn't too long or our long paws might get worried that we're missing." Another mutt told the leader.

"You mean two legs." Bramblestar mewed.

"Either that or our story might be changed into a crossover." The hound joked.

"Crossover? You mean two franchises are going to join this fanfic?" A female mutt asked.

"What's a fanfic?" Another mutt asked curious.

"It's when a person really likes…"

"Quiet!" The leader of the mutts said trying to calm everyone down. "Okay now we have to focus on what is going on about the water crisis." He barked.

"Now that we might say we're dealing with a water shortage." The Labrador addressed to the group.

"I would say that it is nothing to worry about that everything we would have is that we need to split between the bunch of us evenly." The leader addressed "Then the great water dog would soon have water falling from the hills again. If not, we may have to leave the lakeside for the giant lake to the north." He said being serious yet calm at the same time.

"Leave! But this lake is our home." Tigerstar mewed with concern and fear.

"I would have to say that might be true if we do not use the remaining water wisely." The mutt leader said trying to tell them the consequences.

"Huh, us Wind clan cats use our water far more efficiently than the other clans, especially River clan." The Wind clan warrior from the gathering who started a fight began to make his clan the superior one.

"Our clans? What makes you say that our clans are not efficient when it comes to the lake? Miststar mewed questioning his choice of words to make him regret what he was saying.

"You cats fish and drink from the lake greedily with no concern for others!" He said mocking them and their poor water control.

"I can't believe he's making fun of us like this!" A River clan she cat mewed feeling bullied by a Wind clan cat.

Soon an argument broke out between a few cats and a couple of mutts about their clans and groups angrily. But it was quickly silenced as one of the mutts stood up for River clan.

"Well I've seen Three-Horns waste!" Gastonia barked the Wind clan tom.

"WHAT!" He hissed feeling insulted.

"You cats take the longest baths even if you're the least bit dirty." Gastonia barked trying to fire back on the clan before turning. "And I've seen Shadow clan cats wasting too, Splashing water needlessly for shade."

"Impossible our cats will never do that!" Tigerstar hissed feeling really insulted.

The argument continued as the meeting dragged on through the blood moon night as Poppyfrost called out to grab his attention.

"Hey Gastonia over here can I talk to you?" She mewed in an attempt to drag him out of the argument.

"Sure." He responded as he turned to talk to the she cat "What is it?"

"What was that for?" She mewed questioning him.

"I apologize for my behavior but I can't stand seeing some cat or dog get insulted like that especially in times like this. Why can't anyone behave?" he asked trying make her feel more settled.

"I accept it but you shouldn't fight fire with fire and we're all pretty stressed out because of a drought like this.

"I bet you're about as stressed as I am." She mewed as they both calmed down.

"Also here's a clan warming gift." He said as he dropped a rabbit for her.

"Thanks." She mewed as they returned to the group which the heated argument has finally cooled down.

"This is going nowhere." The leader of the mutts said as the meeting came to an end as the sun began to rise to the east and the skies grew brighter slowly.

Everyone soon began to split and head for their clans or their two leg nests. Bramblestar felt really annoyed and insulted. Molewhisker was feeling tired after this as Poppyfrost carried Gastonia's gift.

"Why does it feel like we go nowhere whenever we get to speak?" He asked.

"It feels like our clans do nothing but argue and talk and argue some more." Molewhisker mewed before he yawned tired.

"We you two can rest when we get back to camp. I need to organize herb gathering." He mewed as they headed back to camp. Molewhisker and Poppyfrost went to their dens to rest while Bramblestar began to organize a gathering of the herbs to get for the clans.

The same Wind clan warrior was spying on them seeing an opportunity to strike at them.

"They won't know what is going hit them." He mewed as he went back to tell the clan about his plan of attack.


	8. Rising Tensions

As time continued, the landscape continued to dry up, the forests on the northern part of the clan's land has shriveled to a forest of green but very dry leaves. Some of the larger trees began to molt off their leaves due to the fact that there was simply not enough water to keep them alive. As the sun began to rise over for another hot day Cherryfall was asleep in her den when Alderheart padded up to her trying wake her up for a secret meeting.

"Wake up my fallen leaf." He mewed joking a bit.

"What" Cherryfall mewed half-awake as she stirred to her paws "Where are we going?" She asked puzzled

"We're meeting that mutt from before he wants to show us something so we better hurry before it all dries up." Alderheart mewed to the she-cat.

"Before what dries up?" She mewed puzzled as the two of them padded out of the camp to meet up with the mutt.

"Morning dew." He answered her question about the water sap.

"What is morning dew?" She asked wanting to find out what it was.

"Morning dew is a water sap that gathers on everything when it gets foggy out. It would make a tasty drink in times like this, it's not much but at least it's something." Alderheart mewed to her to answer her question.

Bramblestar soon woke up afterward as the other cats began to wake up as well other warriors wanting an early rise. They gather to discuss who would be doing what as they attempt to stockpile to last them through the times of hardship the best they could.

"Okay Cloudtail, you can organize the hunting parties, Molewhisker, you can organize the patrols and me, Thornclaw, Squirrelflight and Poppyfrost will be heading to the abandoned two leg nest to gather herbs." Bramblestar barked out the orders to make sure everyone would be able to follow the orders that were given.

They soon split off to do their following duties before the harsh sun could catch them out in the open and bake their pelts with unrelenting heat.

Meanwhile, Alderhear and Cherryfall had padded to a small clearing with the gold and white mutt was standing awaiting their arrival.

"Well I was expecting you to come later. Oh well, you're here at this moment." He said.

"Wait are you Gastonia? Molewhisker told me all about you." Cherryfall mewed.

"That's correct. Now come, we shouldn't waste any more time." He yapped as he led the two cats off to a larger clearing. Once they arrived in the larger clearing on the edge of the shrinking lake. Gastonia grabbed the most dew sodden leaf on the young birch tree.

"Here drink this; I'm sure you'll find it pretty tasty." He encouraged Cherryfall.

Cherryfall was over excited as she licked her lips before she dived her head first into the leaf expecting to drink it all in one gulp. But instead, she completely broke the leaf into several pieces. As she raises her head she could count seven large pieces of the leaf as the dew was soaked quickly into the ground.

"Oops it broke." She said as she couldn't have got a quick drink.

"It's not your fault. The leaves are very dry now and crumble easily." Gastonia said trying to help her get over it.

"When will the land be cool and wet again?" She asked worried.

"I don't know." Alderheart mewed.

"Either that or I'm worried a fire might start." Gastonia said worried.

"Fire?" Cherryfall mewed confused and shocked.

"Yes it is why we must show you the escape paths that the clans must know." Alderheart mewed to her.

"Don't worry I'll remember them." Cherryfall mewed feeling a little better as they headed to one of the streams.

Meanwhile Bramblestar was heading to the abandoned two leg nest. Once they arrived they began to gather as many herbs as possible. But the condition of the two leg nest was not in the cats favor, as Bramblestar pulled one of the catmint herbs a loud crack was heard as the nest began to crumble in on them.

"TAKE COVER! Thornclaw shouted as the nest came down on them.

Everyone made it out safely but Bramblestar was buried in it. The other cars wondered if Bramblestar would make it out alive. After a few moments, Squirrelflight couldn't wait for much longer so she decided to dig out the leader herself to make sure he was okay. After a few minutes of digging, the found him and she was able to get him free. She felt his body but he went limp.

"No." She wailed as she began to cry over his limp body.

Bramblestar soon slowly opened his eyes but his breathing was shallow. It was clear he got himself hurt when he was buried alive.

"We should get him back to jayfeather's den." Thornclaw mewed as he help his leader back to the camp while they gathered the herbs and slowly staggered back home.

Everywhere else the clans land was slowly beginning to crumble up. Much of the rivers in river clan are nothing but sticky mud. The moors across wind clan was nothing but dried grass and shadow clan's boggy land was bone dry and their prey was very hard to find so they were the first to begin to starve from lack of food. The lake was still full with water but it had dropped over the past couple of days by a few inches.

Soon the trio pushed their way into the large clearing with the hopes of finding food. They were worn out from the journey under the hot sun.

"I think we're in luck, there still might be some prey around here, let's eat." Alderheart said happily with the hope there maybe still some food.

Yeah let's eat!" Cherryfall mewed as she took a look at some of the scrawny mice.

"These don't look too good, but I sure am hungry." She mewed before the she took bite before she spat it out in disgust.

"It tastes terrible!" She yowled spitting it out.

Alderheart padded over with a fresh crow in his mouth that wasn't part of the mutt's lookout crew.

"Here try this; the meat is still very moist." He said giving her the partially eaten crow.

Cherryfall took a bite from the crow as she happily ate some of it. She had really like the rare treat of moist meat but some of the dry leaves began to fall around here as she felt annoyed.

"Would you stop that?" She asked politely as she looked up to see that it was that was making the mess. It turned out it was just Gastonia munching away on some moist birch leaves.

"I didn't know the dog can be a vegetarian." Alderheart mewed.

"Me either but I sure am thirsty." Cherryfall mewed.

"Well if your thirsty I don't mind if we can get a drink now." Gastonia said "After all we didn't agree that we can have the same water urgencies as everyone else.

"Water thanks!" She shouted as she ran off with the two of them trailing behind her.

Sadly when they reached the lakeside a Wind clan patrol catches the trio before they can start drinking.

"It's not your time to drink!" The aggressive warrior barked at them in an effort to drive them off.

"What do you mean not our time?" Alderheart asked puzzled.

"We all agreed that Wind clan owns the entire lake." He mewed in a very mean tone.

"What about the other clans? They need the same amount of water as much as you do. Just think of them." Gastonia said trying to defend the others. "It's just not fair!"

"There is no fair when it comes to survival!" He yowled trying to drive them off.

This however gets the Thunder clan patrol's attention as they charged at the warrior. Outnumbered four to one, the lone Wind clan warrior retreats with two of the four following behind.

"I hope you all perish in a fire! He shouted before he charged off back to Wind clan camp.

The two warriors return to the patrol to help sort out the situation that happened, among them was Bramblestar who had a mad look across his muzzle.

"What are you doing hanging out with that mutt!" he shouted scolding the two cats.

"He was giving us water plus he's a vegetarian." Cherryfall mewed trying to defend him.

"I don't care you're both punished." Bramblestar scolded the two cats before turning to Gastonia who was hunkering down in a submissive stance. "You're now dead." He hissed in rage as he flexed himself for a fight.

"Bramblestar please, don't do this." Molewhisker mewed to the angry leader telling him fighting the mutt wasn't the best option.

"You've lost one life today and you're down to six. Are you risking losing another?" Squirrelfight urged her leader not to attack. "It's not worth it." She mewed.

Bramblestar ignored them both and he charged at the mutt wanting to sink his teeth into his throat. He was about a tail length away, when all of the sudden, Bramblestar gets swatted by Gastonia's long tail and it throws him off balance and he falls to his side. The slap he received stung like a cat's head in a hornet's nest. As he got up, Squirrelflight noticed a large gash in his face.

"It's best if you let him go." Squirrelflight mewed not wanting him to get beaten up even further.

Bramblestar didn't listen as he charged in again wanting to scratch his flanks open. The other warriors leap onto him pinning him down before he was able to cross the mud.

"Get a hold of yourself! She yowled as the other cats struggle to pin him down.

"Let me have him!" He shouted struggling and heating up under their weight.

It ultimately got to the point where he passed out from overheating. They decide to carry him back to the camp to let him cool off and get his gash treated. The other cats sat down to discuss about their leader.

"He's going insane." Cherryfall mewed.

"I'm worried about him." Cloudtail mewed worried about his leader's condition.

"At this rate, he will have not enough lives to keep him alive." Molewhisker mewed.

"And we're punished for just being friends with a mutt." Alderheart mewed in annoyance.

The chatter continued on for a while before it was interrupted by Cherryfall, who was beginning to feel really sick as she began puking up bile.

"Are you okay?" Alderheart mewed to her.

"No, no I'm not." She mewed before puking again."

"Get her to Jayfeather's den, she ate some crow food by accident." Alderheart mewed worried about her as they helped the she cat to the den.

"This is going to get worse before it gets better." Squirrelflight mewed feeling an omen rising over the clans as the crescent moon rose over the horizon.

 **Author's note: Things are getting busy when end of semester finals are around the corner so I will be investing less time into this in order to pass but I will try my best to get one or two chapters up a week. Also thanks for the 130 views and 39 visits so far, keep the visits up and I could maybe make more chapters faster when finals are done. Also I will be accepting fan art for this story so send me what you have got and your opinion on it. Next chapter will be up soon so be patient.**


	9. News and an Alliance

The sun rose for another hot blistering day. Much of the vegetation was already starting to turn brown due to lack of water making the green forest look like a brown dying forest. Poppyfrost woke up feeling uneasy about what happened to Cherryfall and she was worried. She spotted Cloudtail who had gotten up early to help Jayfeather keep the herbs moist, preventing them from becoming ineffective in case a battle breaks our among the very irritated clans. She padded up to him while he groomed his cloud like white fur.

"How long has she been like this?" She mewed worried.

"About the past quarter moon she should be feeling better by now but He's keeping her inside the den." Cloudtail mewed to her.

"What's the reason?" She mewed wanting an answer from him.

"It's unclear." Cloudtail mewed as he went to give some prey to the elders.

Jayfeather soon woke up and he went out to greet the pair as he told her about her condition. He soon took a fresh mouse from the pile as he began to speak.

"What is it?" She mewed puzzled and a bit worried.

"I would like to speak to you, Berrynose and Alderheart in private later. Cherryfall is feeling better but something I found about her made me want to speak to you about." He meowed showing worry as well.

"I will." She mewed as she went off to give prey to Cherryfall when she thought of about her other kit. "Will Molewhisker be attending this meeting?"

"No, he won't. He'll be about patrolling the lake and maybe getting us more water." He mewed assuring her.

Cloudtail padded his way out to the elders den when Bramblestar greeted him with a mew.

"Morning leader, how are you feeling?" He asked wanting to greet him.

"I'm fine." He grumbled. "Hey Cloudtail, can I speak to you alone?" He asked wanting a response

"Sure." He mewed as the two of them padded to the outside edge of the camp.

"What is it my leader?" He asked.

"Look Cloudtail, I wanted to talk to you about why I hate dogs." He began.

"Okay I'm listening." He mewed.

"It all started when you we're the newest warrior in the clan and me and Brightheart we're still apprentices. That was when the dogs attacked." Bramblestar began. "They killed Swiftpaw, Brindleface, and then finally Bluestar. I never trust them, if there's one, there is more to come." He told him trying to tell him to stay away from the mutt gang.

"What about Gastonia? He seems harmless and wouldn't put up much of a fight. And if you did try to fight him, he would most likely hug the ground and make himself too difficult to attack. Cloudtail mewed to the leader trying to point it out to him.

"That's the point, if one dog comes; he's always going to bring extras with him in case a fight would happen. Whether or not he is harmless or not, we can't always be as soft as you." He mewed sternly wanting the clan to be a little more defensive on who comes along and visits the clan.

"Wait how did that scratch get there on your face right there, I've never seen it before?" Cloudtail mewed seeing the scratch for the first time.

"It was his tail that caused it." He mewed.

"Yeah but it's confusing since a dogs tail is mainly either skin or fluff." He mewed. "Wait I have an idea, next time he comes around you will go into hiding and study his tail, then you would be able to report to me about it." He said getting the leader's idea.

"Are you interested in killing him as well?" Bramblestar asked out of curiousity.

"Not really. He's pretty much harmless and we should also use our energy for more important things such as fending off the other clans rather than going after a mutt." Cloudtail mewed to the leader.

The two of them padded back to the camp as they began to organize the events of today. As the day continued to get hotter and the orders were organized, Jayfeather wanted to speak to the three cats as the padded into the Medicine cat's den as they met alone.

"What is it?" Alderheart mewed out of curiousity.

'Cherryfall is going to be fine. She's not infected with anything she ate but I found something that made me worried about her, especially in a drought such as this.

"What is it then?" Poppyfrost mewed worried about her.

"She's expecting kits." He mewed answering her question bluntly.

"KITS!" Berrynose yowled as his ears rose high with fury.

"Calm down!" Jayfeather hissed tackling Berrynose to the ground trying to calm him down.

"Where is she now?" Poppyfrost mewed to the medicine cat worried about her.

"Cherryfall is in the nursery being expected by the queens." Jayfeather mewed. "Everyone is dismissed."

They padded out of the den as they were all shocked as Molewhisker came in with a fresh mouse in his mouth to greet Poppyfrost.

"So what is it? Is she going to be okay?" He mewed curious feeling worried about her.

"She's going to have kits." Poppyfrost mewed to him wanting him to lighten up a bit.

"That's nice." He mewed dropping the mouse as he smiled a bit feeling that he would have kin to watch over. "Anyways, Cloudtail wants us on his next patrol with us." He mewed telling her the plans for today.

"Sure thing I will attend." She mewed.

That afternoon when the sun was on a slant, it was shining on the lake that was still drying up but there was still plenty of water in there some of the deer were drinking from the lake to get the fluid. Thornclaw, Leafpool, Cloudtail, Poppyfrost and Molewhisker were walking alongside the sandy soil. From a few fox lengths away, they picked up noise from nearby. They turned their heads to see what it was and it was just Gastonia and a couple of other mutts deep in conversation. They soon slowly padded up to them to see what it was. The mutts on the other hand, were oblivious to them coming as they kept on the chatter.

"I saw my long-paw playing this simulator of some sort last night." One of the mutts opened up to the others.

"What was it called? The leader asked curious about it.

"It's called The Isle created by a dog called the Dondo." He said laughing as the leader began laughing.

"I'm sorry but I don't know what this isle really is?" Gastonia asked out of his curiosity.

"The Isle is an open world dinosaurs simulator game my long-paw was playing." He said. "I wish there were more fanfics about that." He soon grumbled as the leader laughed thinking it was hilarious.

"But I don't know so I might ask what is a dinosaur?" The leader asked him as he burst out laughing.

"It might be Gastonia, or Tyranno? I don't even know." He said as he began laughing the air out of his lungs.

"Hey." Gastonia growled as his chops were wet with water as he didn't like that remark.

The clan cats were watching their conversation eyeing the dogs with curiosity wanting to know what they were talking about.

"What are they talking about?" Leafpool asked.

"What I hear is that they do not want to go to war with the clans." Molewhsiker mewed as his head turned back eyeing the dogs.

"Whatever it is, it makes no sense." Thornclaw mewed as they edged closer for a better look.

"I know this game is funny." The leader of the mutts asked as he continued to laugh harder about it.

"Also you know what happened to my long-paw's huge allo pack? They were all attacked by both the raptors and rexes, a trike ran in there and fought all of them and a stego ran in there and maybe even a couple of carnos from what I was watching." He said laughing like it was the craziest experience that he had the privilege of watching.

The mutts were completely unaware that a couple of tail lengths away, the cats were slowly encircling them but they didn't want to attack.

"Now long-paws on The Isle get into massive fights that might end up with many of their dinosaurs extinct!" The mutt said as the soon began to laugh thinking it was completely ridiculous but still really funny at the same time.

"Then the next thing they know is when you're about to fight and a single raptor joins in!" The mutt said as all three of them began laughing thinking the joke was the funniest thing ever. However, the laughter came to an end when the leader of the mutts accidently backs himself into Leafpool. They stopped their laughing as they turned to greet the clan cats.

"We didn't see any of you." Gastonia said greeting them.

"Okay two questions. First, why are you with other dogs? Second, what are you talking about that makes it so funny to you?" Thornclaw growled as his temper rose from being annoyed.

"Calm down." Cloudtail mewed trying to keep him from attacking.

"Okay first of all I'm hanging out with a couple of good friends since I'm sadly a stray, second we're just joking around." Gastonia told them not wanting a fight.

"So you're a stray." Poppyfrost mewed feeling some empathy seeing he isn't as well-groomed as his friends.

Unaware to them Bramblestar had followed them this whole time and wanted to see what the mutt's tail was like. He got close enough as he studied the tail seeing it was a long tail but the fur was so matted together it formed like the spikes on both sides running up and down. He also knew that the mutt had a lot of matted fur running along his back making him very difficult to attack by just simply biting down on his neck and calling it a day.

"Darn the mutt looks a lot tougher than I realize." He said to himself as he began thinking of ways on how to take him down.

"Hey need some help over there?" A familiar Wind clan tom mewed.

"Well who are you?" Bramblestar mewed as he went to the voice.

"Well you've seen me at the gatherings I'm Moltedclaw." He mewed.

"Well I'm Bramblestar." He greeted him.

"I just became deputy and I want to make Wind-clan fierce." He mewed.

"That's nice, also I was wondering if I could team up with me so we can kill this mutt." Bramblestar mewed.

"You mean that gold and white one named Gastonia?" He asked looking at their conversations.

"Yeah that's the one." He said.

"I've been contemplating on taking him down as well." He admitted.

"You have?" He said.

"Yes I have, and then it will be Onestar next." He mewed in a coarse language.

"Wow I would never be able to think that." Bramblestar said.

"Listen to me if you want to kill that mutt, go after his legs or underside. They lack any of that steel tough fur." He suggested.

Soon Bramblestar gathered up his clan as they headed back to camp with the new information that he collected as he soon began to plot against the clans to help Wind clan win the lake, unaware that this was going to be a recipe for complete disaster.

 **[A/N]: This has come early since I had some free time today, and also I want to help out to TheDondi the creator of the dinosaur simulator "The Isle." Who apparently is sick I hope he gets better soon so I can have my updates coming from him. All thoughts and prayers go to him hope he feels better.**


	10. Calm before the storm

It was pretty clear that the landscape was in trouble, not only is the soil very sandy but also very dry and loose seeing it could bury an animal alive. As the sun began to set, animals seemed to be more active in the cool air than baking underneath the blazing sun.

Many cats it seemed were not only thirsty, but they were also becoming very hungry as well since the prey has either moved or died. This forced the clans to look harder for prey, and they began attacking whatever they could find, no matter how well defended they were. Many cats were getting hurt just to get food for them and it was clear by their cuts and bruises.

As for the dogs on the other hand, it was clear it was time for their gathering as many of them gathered in the open spaces on the farm. The moon was at its first quarter signaling to them it was time to gather and talk. As they settled down, some of the dogs were agitated and stressed. Soon the leader barked out signaling the beginning,

"It's getting worse out there." The leader barked.

"I know, there is less and less water to drink." Another mutt barked worried.

"And we don't have enough prey to give to our friends the long claws." The Labrador said feeling sorry.

"It's clear that Tyranno would be enjoying this time while everyone struggles." A mutt said. "Plus his jaws can crush just about any type of bones that it locks onto."

"I know but we need to make sure that the long claws can trust us since I heard a fight broke out with one of those clans." The leader sneered turning his head to the gold and white mutt.

"We still must do something. Any mutt got any suggestions?" The leader barked at his members.

"How about we invite them all into the lake?" One of the mutts suggested."

"That would be a great idea." He yapped happily.

Gastonia was doing nothing but looking at the moon as it began to set across the horizon. He was too nervous to speak about anything He thought about his friends across the drying up lake but it was clear that the others were planning on drawing in the cats to the lake. It was clear that he wasn't planning on speaking for this meeting.

As the sun rose the next day it was clear that the heat was going to be at its worst. The dogs decided the best course of action was to go into lake to cool off the heat from the burning sun. as they dipped into the lake it was cooler than they had realized and it was still more than a foot deep in some areas so it was refreshing for the dogs as they drank and swam in the cool water. It was clear that today would be a scorching day.

Bramblestar soon woke up feeling the air more stuffy than normal, it was clear that today was a very hot and stuffy day. Other cats began to walk up as they began to groom the moss that had stuck to their fur. After organizing the orders for today he went back to rest in his cool den. It was clear that Molewhisker was leading out today's patrols as they went along marking the borders of the crumbling territories. When the temperature in the air finally reaches a blistering 104 degrees Fahrenheit, it was clear that they needed water and fast. Alderheart sadly collapses due to a heatstroke a few moments before and a couple of other cats were sent to find water to bring down the heat stroke. Molewhisker came back with good news so they had to act quickly to save him.

"I found the lake come on!" He mewed as he lead the overheating cats to the lake as they splashed water on Alderheart waking him up as well as cooling him off. As he woke up, he spotted a large group of dogs wallowing around in the lake as Molewhisker ran off to gather the rest of the clan.

"What's going on?" Alderheart mewed as he spotted the dogs happily walking and rolling around in the water.

"It's too hot our so we're heading into the lake to cool off from the heat." One of the mutts barked as he tossed him a freshly killed mouse to him.

"Okay and thank you." Alderheart mewed as he happily ate the fresh mouse.

Soon more Thunderclan cats gathered at the lake thinking the lake was a giant pool of sanctuary. As they dipped their paws in, the water was about 16 degrees cooler than the air around them. They soon began to hop in happily as the mutts greeted them warmly as well as giving them some prey to eat. Even the kits were brought out from their hot dens to roll around in the smaller puddles around the lake's edges while the adults kept an eye on them. Soon more cats from other clans followed trying to find a way to escape the hot sticky air. The other clans were greeted warmly as they soon began to swim in the water happily. However, not all the cats were in the water, Cherryfall was frightened to step into the water worried about her kits.

"What's the matter?" He mewed as he swam over to her.

"I can't get in, I might drown my kits." She mewed a little frightened.

"It's okay I'll help you in the water." He mewed to her as he gently helped her into the water staying by her side. The water finally cooled off the she cat as she felt more comfortable as they headed into the deeper section of the lake.

"So you finally came to enjoy yourselves?" One of the mutts asked as he gave her a fresh rabbit to eat.

"I'm fine but thank you." She said as she promptly ate her prize happily.

Gastonia on the other hand was not socializing with the others since his fur only absorbed the water but it didn't change the shape of this thick steel like fur. It was clear that if he had gotten someone to take care of him, he would need a serious grooming to look normal. He was busy patrolling the lake making sure a fight didn't erupt between the clans. However, as the day came to a close and the air softened to a less humid state as everyone soon got out of the water and headed back to the camp.

"That was a fun day?" Asked Cloudtail; he feeling happy about being cooled off by the lake.

"No conflict." Mewed Alderheart as he felt better by being cooled off by the lake.

"Yeah no fights we were just desperate to get wet." Joked Squirrelflight.

As everyone was heading back to their camps, one of the mutts looked up seeing that the clouds were gathering over the horizon. The clouds got thicker and darker as the minutes wore on and the dogs and cats dried themselves off from their day of peacefully wading around in the drying up lake. One of the mutts looked up and saw the clouds.

"Finally this parched land is going to get some much needed rain." He said happily.

"Yep things will get better." The leader of the mutts told him feeling the cool breeze drift over them.

However, they were both wrong. The clouds were not bringing them rain but another nasty surprise was looming over them. As the skies got darker, the storm got stronger when all of the sudden a lightning rod came down and started a fire in the forest. The dry vegetation only acted as tinder fueling the flames as they rapidly grew. There was no warning only mounting smoke and heat and the clans didn't know they were in trouble.


	11. Fire storm

It was the dead of night over the clans as many of the cats were fast asleep. If it was two leg time then the time would four ten in the morning when,

"Mr. Narrator can you please shut your trap, I'm in the middle of a very pleasant dream right here?" Bramblestar whined to what appeared to be nothing in his den.

Soon the noise went away as Bramblestar soon fell asleep once again, he was dreaming about him and Squirrelflight and his kits wandering through a field of wild dandelions, when suddenly; Cloudtail appeared from thin air as he slowly walked up to leader showing his fluffy white marshmallow like coat as he began to call out for the leader.

"Bramblestar." He mewed trying to get his attention.

"Cloudtail, go away. I'm trying to enjoy a very good moment with Squirrelfight." He mewed.

"Bramblestar wake up." Cloudtail mewed trying to get the leader to open his eyes.

"Are you just an image in my mind or something?" He asked feeling more bothered wanting to enjoy this moment

"Bramblestar, this is really important please wake up!" He yowled finally getting his attention.

Bramblestar's eyes finally shot open seeing it was Cloudtail standing in front of him wanting his attention. He was still confused about what the fluffy white tom wanted.

"What is it that you want?" He grumbled that he was sleeping peacefully.

"We have to get the clan out of the forest." He said urgently.

"Any reason why?" Bramblestar mewed puzzled.

"Yes there is." He mewed as he led the leader to the entrance to the camp.

"Is there anything you might want to show me? OH NO!" He asked before he yowled in complete fright.

As it turned out, the fire was making its way through the forest and it was spreading fast. The dried out trees due to the drought only served as kindling for the rapidly growing flames. Bramblestar knew this meant trouble and he yowled loudly urging the clan to wake up. Soon all the clan cats shot up all hearing the yowl and all the cats mounted at the camp entrance.

"Cloudtail has discovered a fire eating away our forest. We must evacuate!" Bramblestar yowled as all the cats ran out of the forest as fast as their legs could carry them. As the fire continued to rip its way through the forest, black smoke arose as the fire had enough fuel to suffocate any cat who was too slow. Cherryfall was falling dangerously behind due to the weight of her kits. It was clear that she would be killed unless action was taken. Alderheart quickly realized this and he quickly thought up a plan.

"I'm going back for your kit Poppyfrost, Get Molewhisker to safety." He mewed to her telling her to continue on as he went back for Cherryfall.

Cherryfall was panting heavily knowing she couldn't keep up with the rest of her clan. She collapsed in exhaustion but Alderheart quickly ran up to her and tried to nudge her back onto her paws.

"Come on! I'm not leaving you behind!" Alderheart mewed he urged the she onto his back.

"Thanks for coming back." Cherryfall panted as she gripped his scruff holding onto it.

"Hold on tight." He suggested as he bolted off faster than a Wind clan cat could race across the moor.

It was clear there was no going back to get the herbs as they were lost in the flames. All the cats raced across the clearing into Wind clan's moor. Bramblestar stopped and took a tail count, it was clear that two cats were missing.

"Where is Cherryfall and Alderheart?" He mewed worried.

"Alderheart said he was going to go back to get her." Poppyfrost mewed to the leader to address the situation.

"I'm afraid that they might have choked to death in the smoke or burned alive in the fire." Molewhisker mewed with sorrow as he wanted to cry about losing his littermate.

"Either or!" A familiar voice rang out as it ran towards them. It was Alderheart carry Cherryfall on his back.

"You made it!" Poppyfrost mewed with delight as she and Molewhisker greeted the brave cat at rescuing her.

"Looks like we're a perfect match for each other after all." Cherryfall mewed thanking Alderheart coming back to rescue her.

"Now is not the time for the shipping sub-plot in this fanfic! We must find safety before the fire scorches the moor!" Cloudtail mewed to them as he began to lead the way into the moor as the fire continued to eat up the very dry trees.

"Who made Cloudtail leader of all this?" Squirrelflight mewed puzzled.

"Well he was the one who discovered the fire so he was able to get us out in time." Leafpool mewed to her wanting to make sure that she was on point.

Meanwhile, it was Wind-clan's turn to drink from the lake all the cats were drinking from the lake with Moltedclaw and the mutts supervising them telling if they had enough to drink. A male kit was lapping up the water with his clan looking over him. It was clear that the mutts didn't like the rules that were implicated but it was the most logical decision they could come up with.

"That's enough. You had your share for today." Moltedclaw ordered the kit to step away from the lake.

"The Wind-clan deputy is getting far too bossy with the clan." A mutt commented.

"I agree with you." A female mix breed said backing him up.

Soon Thunder-clan cats appeared as they were running up to Wind-clan. They didn't want a fight but to get out of what was brewing up back at their camp.

"Onestar!" Cloudtail yowled for his attention.

"Moltedclaw!" Bramblestar yowled.

"What brings you all the way here?" Onestar mewed with concern.

"Fire! There's fire in Thunder-clan!" Cloudtail yowled.

"Are you sure Cloudtail?" Gastonia asked with shock as he knew a fire could happen.

"Yes Gastonia, It is right over in the forests of where Thunder-clan is!" Cloudtail mewed to the mutt.

Gastonia raised his head studying horizon of where Thunder-clan's great forests stood. It was clear that Cloudtail wasn't making things up when a fire was on its way, eating up the land as it spreads.

"Yes, we can see the signs of a fire from here." Gastonia barked.

"Fire in thunder-clan?" A she cat mewed.

"That is close to here." A tom apprentice muttered in concern.

"We must run!" A tom warrior yowled.

"Calm yourselves! We will lead you to safety!" Gastonia barked loudly calming everyone down so no panic ensured.

"No! I will! They'll be better off following me!" Moltedclaw yowled wanting authority over the entire situation.

Everyone looked bewildered and confused as the tom took 3 great leaps in the east across the dry yellow grass. It was clear he wanted everyone to follow him.

"This way! Come!" He yowled wanting them to follow while everyone stayed put.

"But you're heading down wind where the fire will surely spread to; we must travel to River-Clan." Gastonia warned.

"Do as you will mutt! But Bramblestar and I go this way!" Moltedclaw said. "Come Bramblestar."

"But Moltedclaw, maybe we should listen to the clans for once." Bramblestar mewed.

"The clans can do what they want, but I don't trust the mutts so you will do what I tell you!" He said sternly as he went off in the direction of the down-wind.

Bramblestar contemplated for a couple of moments thinking about it. But, he soon came up to a decision.

"I'm going with Moltedclaw." He said before he hurried off following the irresponsible tom.

"I do not really like this." Squirrelflight mewed as her heart sank knowing her leader made the wrong decision.

"Can any of you stop them?" Molewhisker mewed worried about his leader and the Wind-clan deputy.

"I have to go after them." Gastonia said as he turned and he followed where the two cats ran off to.

"Yes, everyone come with me. We will lead the others to safety." Poppyfrost mewed trying to organize a plan.

"But what about Shadow-clan and River-clan, what will happen to them?" Molewhisker mewed with concern.

"They'll use the escape routes closest to them." Poppyfrost mewed trying to get him to calm down to focus on the situation they were in right now. "Now come." She mewed to him.

"Every cat will follow me. Kits first!" Poppyfrost ordered everyone as they began to set out to River-clan territory.

It was clear that Bramblestar and Moltedclaw were in trouble. Not only did the fire burn faster on the Moor than in the woods, but it was also hotter than usual. Both cats we're panting heavily when they stopped to catch their breaths. But when Bramblestar turned his head, the fire was quickly at their tails so they got up and ran again. They reached the edge of a small gorge when the fire quickly caught up to Bramblestar.

"AHH! RUN!" He yowled as he ran as fast as he could and he leaped onto a ledge but the ledge immediately crumbled under the weight and force of the leader. Soon Bramblestar was buried alive.

"Bramblestar!" Moltedclaw yowled as he dove into the gorge to free Bramblestar.

Bramblestar popped out of the rocks unshaved as Moltedclaw quickly removed off the rest of the rocks as the two of them continued to run through the gorge as the fire quickly laid its grasp on the area the two cats were in.

Meanwhile with the others, it was clear that they were in trouble as well, many if the cats we're coughing on the black smoke that was blocking the cats and dogs vision. Poppyfrost was still determined to get the cats to safety when they bumped into Tigerstar who was busy evacuating Shadow-clan from the fire.

"Did the fire spread to your territory?" She mewed.

"Yes it did." Tigerstar mewed answering her question.

"We must head for the hills. I smell that River-clan might catch fire." The leader of the mutts said as he began to lead the way to hills outside of the clan's territory.

"I guess we follow him now. Poppyfrost mewed as she began to lead them all to the hill where it was least likely to catch fire.

"Please mutt, find the leader and bring him back here." Leafpool mewed worried thinking the mutt may get trapped as they fled for the hills.

 **[A/N]: This will be split into two parts since this chapter was long enough. Plus finals are right around the corner so I feel more nervous than before. Part two will be up as soon as I could be able to type it. If not I would let you know in the next chapter. Plus my Allergies are bothering me so I may have to spread out more time between. See you all.**


	12. Fire storm Part 2

Gastonia ran around the moor calling out for the two cats. He was panting and coughing from the smoke generated from the fire, but he was determined to find them in the mess if burning vegetation. He soon found the gorge as he sniffed figuring out they went down as he continued to call out to deaf ears.

"Bramblestar? Bramblestar where are you?" He howled as he charged through the flames and smoke.

Bramblestar and Moltedclaw were racing through the moor as the fire was hot on their tails. They reached a wooded area of the gorge unfamiliar to the clan cats as the fire was blocking off any potential escape.

"Are you sure this is the right Moltedclaw?" Bramblestar asked nervously and panting heavily from inhaling the smoke.

"Of course I'm sure." Moltedclaw assured him as they pressed on.

They continued to run but they were cut off by a giant wall of flames right in front of them. Bramblestar shrieked in terror seeing they couldn't escape.

"Moltedclaw!" He yowled in terror.

"This way Bramblestar." He mewed as they all went left but then a wall of fire from both sides blocked them out so they were forced to go back. Bramblestar let out another shriek as he was frightened.

"No!" Moltedclaw growled as they headed off other direction. However a large tree had caught fire, as the strong winds blew it down blocking off the exit, boxing them in four corners of fire. Bramblestar let out another shriek realizing he and Moltedclaw were stuck with nowhere to go.

"I seriously don't want to go to Star-clan!" Bramblestar said as this was a big mistake he and the Wind-clan deputy had now regretted making. It was soon that the panting and the smoke to be proving to be too much for him as he collapsed. Moltedclaw looked on as Bramblestar loses a life as he was now down to five lives from six. Moltedclaw was hoping someone was on their trail hoping they would rescue them before they would choke on the smoke.

Meanwhile the clans and mutts were all slowly making their ways to the hills. They were blinded by the thick smoke as their eyes watered, many of them were keeping their eyes closed but it was proving to be no good. Soon they bumped into another clan who were also escaping the fire. It was River-clan this time.

"Miststar what are you doing?" Squirrelfight mewed puzzled at the leader.

"The fire has spread to River-clan." She explained as the cats joined the mass.

"This is the worst fire I've ever seen since back at the old territories." Cloudtail mewed remembering the horrifying incident.

"We must keep going we're almost there!" The leader of the mutts called out advising the cats to cut the chatter and keep going.

"Just a moment." Miststar mewed to the lead advising they would catch up.

"It's best if we keep moving." Molewhisker advised them as he and Alderheart were bringing up the rear helping Cherryfall along to a pace that the heavy she cat was comfterable with. Poppyfrost soon caught up and stroke up a sentence with them.

"You know Molewhisker is very helpful with his littermates. I've never seen him be side by side with Cherryfall before like he is her mate." Poppyfrost mewed to them as they all slowly padded along.

"Especially when you're grand kits are coming soon." Squirrelfight mewed as they pressed on.

"It makes me feel old." Poppyfrost joked as the cats soon came to a series of large hills which remained untouched by the fire. It was clear that they were going to live.

"I hope Bramblestar makes it out alive and he better get here fast. " Squirrelfight mewed worried about her leader's fate.

Meanwhile Bramblestar had woken up in the middle of the flames. The fire as edging even closer to them as Moltedclaw was about ready to be killed by suffocation.

"How are you doing my deputy?" Bramblestar coughed on the black smoke.

"Not too great." Moltedclaw coughed hard as it was clear that he was ready to collapse due to lack of oxygen.

"Hang in there." He encouraged the leader.

"We can't, we're trapped!" Bramblestar shrieked to the Wind-clan deputy.

"Three horn! Over here!" A familiar voice called out for him.

Bramblestar looked out seeing who it was that called out for him. He looked up seeing a familiar face looking down on him as he was digging out the slope to a tall tree. It was Gastonia, and he came to the two cat's aid. Using his paws, he knocked down the tree over the fire. The tree soon caught fire, but it provided a bridge for the two cats to escape the flames.

"Hurry Bramblestar!" Moltedclaw shouted to Bramblestar ordering him to keep up.

Soon the mutt and the two cats were racing through the smoke as fast as they could. They all coughed and wheezed as they charged through the underbrush. Soon they soon were approaching a large fallen pine tree about to be eaten by the flames.

"Jump!" Gastonia shouted.

"Are you crazy mutt?" Moltedclaw mewed as they continued to get closer to the fallen tree.

"Or duck." He said changing his mind as the tree was feet away from them.

"Let's do this." Bramblestar mewed urging the Wind-clan deputy to duck under the log.

Soon the two cats ducked under the fallen pine tree as the mutt leaped over the tree as it was eaten by the fire. The trio then crossed a the two-leg road as many large objects came roaring down then stopping as many two-legs popped out of the objects as they began to attempt to control the flames by dousing water on them. They came up the hill panting and coughing from running through the fire and smoke. They soon came to a stop to catch their breaths.

"Are you all right Bramblestar?" Moltedclaw mewed frightened wanting to make sure that he was okay.

"Yes I am." Coughed Bramblestar who inhaled a lot of smoke.

"Come." Gastonia commanded as they roamed the hills back to the clans.

Meanwhile the clan cats and mutts were all staring at the clan's territory from a safe distance as they began to wonder where the mutt and the two cats were. A howl pierced through the air as Molewhisker picked it up recognizing who it was.

"Gastonia!" Molewhisker mewled with excitement as the three of them found their way back to where the cats and dogs were setting up their temporary camp. The three of them were all black from the all of the soot and ash that covered their bodies.

"You've made it! I was so worried about you." Poppyfrost mewed with relief as she greeted the mutt. Then she rubbed her head alongside his neck to get some of the soot off.

"I'm fine Poppyfrost, I am." Gastonia said as he felt the she cat rubbing against him purring with delight. "How is everyone else?" He asked curious about them.

"We all got here safely, thanks to Cloudtail and the mutts." Poppyfrost mewed answering the question.

"Yes thanks to Cloudtail." Some of the kits mewed as they rubbed themselves across the fluffy white tom.

"We are all very lucky to be alive." Poppyfrost mewed to the others about how no one died due to the flames.

"Lucky? How can you say we are lucky when our clans burn?" Moltedclaw asked as his began to water up. "We are without water and now we are without a home. All will be forever lost." He mewed as he began crying as parts of his soot covered fur suddenly gave away to stripes of his darken brown fur.

"All is not lost my friend. You are still the Wind-clan deputy, and you are still here able to claim that position." Poppyfrost mewed to him, assuring him that he should be grateful that he was still alive.

"Oh you are right, thank you mutt." Moltedclaw mewed realizing life would be so much better if he was still there taking care of the clan. Gastonia nodded happy to be there whenever someone needed help getting out of trouble.

"So what now, how long do we have to wait until we can go back home?" Miststar mewed to the group.

"If it's possible we may never go back and we will have to go live with the tribe cats." Thornclaw said thinking fire would be a great hazard.

"So we'll wait here until the fire goes out?" Tigerstar mewed.

"Most likely." Answered Onestar.

Soon the cats and mutts were being treated for smoke related damage. Gastonia, Bramblestar and Moltedclaw were all given honey and Juniper berries to treat the coughing they picked up from the smoke. As they days wore on and everyone soon began to feel better, the clan cats and mutts soon got to know each other better and determined that they would all be friends with no hostility between them. Bramblestar was looking at a large group of warriors from all the clans as they were all in a conversation.

"If we then remove the poison of the food but fresh kill pile. But then Moonkitti rushes in and begins gobbling up all of the poison screaming something about cowardly millennials. Then she dies." One of the mutts say laughing as they thought it was very hilarious about one of the videos he has been watching from a two-leg's magical devices.

"Sweep the leg! HONK!" Another mutt said laughing.

"What are you laughing about?" Asked Bramblestar puzzled. "And who in all of Star-clan is Moonkitti?" He asked again.

"We're just catching up on old times, and Moonkitti is the two-leg that spoils the plot of the books to the audience and it's freaking hilarious."

"Why would Moonkitti spoil the entire plot of the books for the purpose of entertainment?" Asked Bramblestar puzzled not hearing about this stranger.

"Because Feathertail killed an entire mountain lion and the books onwards makes no sense." One of the mutts said.

"Sorry Stormfur I didn't really think this one through." Quoted another mutt laughing his tail off.

"Yeah killing Sharptooth would make no sense if Feathertail would still be alive and have half clan kits like Silverstream." Said the Labrador retriever.

"Hey don't insult a dead cat like that, she gave her life for everyone else." Mothwing said as she was furious about the dogs insulting one of their warriors that died saving everyone else from Sharptooth.

'Then the story wouldn't make sense if Feathertail didn't die we wouldn't have been able to go home. Nothing in the stories of how you interpret from some random two-leg that we don't even know, of course whatever this Moonkitti would say about Sharptooth would make no sense." Squirrelflight mewed trying to assure them about her point

"Neither would any of The Land Before Time sequels, because Sunningrocks is a parking lot now." The mutt told Squirrelflight wanting to crack another 4th wall joke on the people who just so happen to read this.

"Wait hold on? How many times have we broken the 4th wall in this fanfic?" Gastonia asked wanting to keep track of where this story was heading.

"About one too many." Squirrelflight mewed answering the mutt's question.

They both turn their heads to see the leader of the mutt gang holding a sledgehammer and a completely destroyed 4th wall. No one was completely surprised about that.

"Oh great I knew we should have gotten storm insurance before the fire happened." The Labrador retriever barked.

"And that gives the excuse that the person writing this fanfic would have the permission to make more dinosaur references." Cloudtail mewed.

"Let's hope this fanfic resumes like normal and let's forget any of this happened." Leafpool sighed.

 **[A/N]: Boy this was a long one. I've taken 2 finals so this has taken 2 days to complete but I didn't want to leave you hanging. Plenty of 4** **th** **wall breaking and references were made so I wouldn't bore you to death with cats burning up in a fire. Also I'm giving credit to the Youtuber Moonkitti in this would definitely add some funny humor part and I'm giving her credit for this part which I will interpret for your joy.**

" **They try to remove the poison from the fresh kill pile, but Dappletail rushes in and starts gobbling up all of it screaming something about cowardly millennials. Then she dies." Moonkitti, I spoil Moonrise for everybody.**

 **Hope you like it I will upload the next chapter as soon as possible.**


	13. Calm Before the Battle

It was a few days after the forest fire and the cats and dogs were able to go back home. The areas around the lake were ravaged to the point that they would be unrecognizable. Much of the dense forests in Thunder-clan was burned and full of ash. However, many of the trees weren't completely burned so they could make a recovery. Shadow-clan was also heavily affected by the fire as much of the boggy land was nothing but loose clay with much of their food virtually non-existent. However, the high number of deer and crows present in the area made Shadow-clan more aggressive when it came to their hunting skills and they didn't need to hunt as often. River-clan was the least affected from the fire due to the position of their territory so it took a while for the fire to reach their territory. Wind-clan however, was completely scarred from the fire. Not only were the rabbits long gone, but their territory was hot ash depriving their prey any food. And as a result, Wind-clan was being strangled with starvation.

The mutts tried their best to give them food, but it was nothing more than the stuff kitty pets would eat. Although it was not as good as fresh kill, Wind-clan and Shadow-clan quickly took the food in to stave off starvation. River-clan took some time and persuasion but they eventually took into eating the food that was like slop and rabbit droppings. Thunder-clan was a lot more stubborn, and they denied needing help from a bunch of dogs that did not want any violence. But, Bramblestar continued to deny them and made many attempts to shoo them away.

On this particular night, the gathering would ensure to present the news on how the clans were doing. Everyone was preparing to go but Bramblestar was very angry when he heard that the dogs were going as well. Squirrelflight was trying to convince him that it was nothing to be stressed about and take the gathering like all the others. Bramblestar was having none of this.

"I will not tolerate any of those mutts at the gathering." He said very angry at her.

"It's not like they would want to hurt us." Squirrelflight mewed trying her best to calm him down.

"I've had enough of this with that they wouldn't harm us!" Bramblestar yowled in rage.

Bramblestar proceeded to attack Squirrelflight despite her not wanting to fight back. Bramblestar lifts his paw and proceeds to scratch Squirrelflight's cheek causing blood to trickle to the ground. Then Bramblestar proceeds to tackle his own deputy to the ground and he wanted to clamp his jaws on her neck. Leafpool, Cloudtail and Brightheart all rush in and attack Bramblestar into submission while Molewhisker takes Squirrelflight to the Medicine cat's den.

A little while later everything cooled down and Squirrelflight left the Medicine cat's den with cobwebs on her cheek. Soon it was off to the gathering. Leafpool and Brightheart were left in charge of the clan while the four cats took off for the island. When they arrived they weren't greeted with kindness other than the dogs.

"What is up dumb cats?" Mistystar sneered.

"Yeah they wouldn't accept any of your anger and arrogance." Tigerstar growled.

Wind-clan and the mutts say nothing since they have had nothing nice to say at the clan cats. Before the gathering started, River-clans leader wanted to speak with the gold and white mutt about how to say her name correctly.

"It's Mistystar." She told the mutt who wanted to correct his dialect.

"Then how come the narrator keeps calling you Miststar?" He asked.

"Probably he's mistyping my name. But I can also go by that and Misty as a nick-name for loners." She mewed.

"Oh okay then." He said as he went back to the gathering place to hear about the news that was about to be presented. Mistystar first spoke out.

"We've feared tensions that the clans might be plotting something against us, but we don't know who." She mewed. "Plus prey seems very scarce." She also pointed out.

"My entire clan is getting hurt." Tigerstar mewed pointing out that his clan had have been hunting deer for some time to keep them alive. "And we also have a massive herb shortage for our wounds." He also stated.

"All food and herbs will be rationed to the clans that need them so we can ease any signs of conflict." The leader of the Mutts announced to the cats to hang in there as help was on the way.

"I also feel like some of my clan is plotting something against River-clan and I don't know who will it be. It's obvious that Moltedclaw had chickened out instead of fighting River-clan after the fire." Onestar mewed to his clan.

Bramblestar did nothing but screech for forty-five seconds instead of presenting any news. Mistystar was annoyed about it.

"I hope I can take the rest of your lives away." Threatened Mistystar.

"I hope the cats plotting against you will take your land away." Bramblestar threatened back.

"Settle down everyone. Tigerstar mewed trying to avoid a fight.

Soon the two leaders began to swat each other with their paws. However, this didn't last very long until one of the mutts' rushes in ramming Bramblestar to the ground.

"Enough." The mutt barked at the leader. Bramblestar after hearing this decided to fall out of the fight and soon the gathering came to an end.

"It was nice of you coming over to the gathering." Mistystar, Tigerstar and Onestar mewed in a collective yet friendly manner to the dogs.

Bramblestar decided to lag behind as a few Wind-clan and Shadow-clan cats had gathered to plot out a plan to fight against River-clan.

"What is it?" He mewed puzzled about.

"We are coming up with a takeover plan to take River-clan for us." One cat explained. "Want to join our plan?" The cat explained.

"Sure after what Mistystar did to me." He mewed.

"So we can do what we want and attack them without warning." The cat mewed to him as they began planning.

The next day, Molewhisker was heading down to the lake to gather some water for the clan. He was completely unaware that the secret group of cats was planning to attack River-clan and he was padding to collect the water as he saw a completely molted black and brown tom cat heading to the same lake as he was. Not only was he down and out of his luck but, Molewhisker padded over to give him some company. It turned out that the tom cat was Moltedclaw.

"What's going on?" Molewhisker asked.

"I've dropped out." Moltedclaw mewed.

"Dropped out of what? Tell me?" Molewhisker mewed puzzled.

"Remember that I wanted to attack River-clan so I can have the whole lake for my clan? I've been having nightmares about it and I regret what I've said. Plus a mutt saved me and Bramblestar's life from that fire." Moltedclaw mewed feeling down.

"Well I feel so sorry for you." Molewhisker mewed. "We all say stuff that we feel pride of but we all change and no longer feel so powerful about it." He continued.

"At least you're the only one who knows how I feel about what is happening about our lives." Moltedclaw mewed feeling some happiness feeling he could have a cat to talk to.

"Also one more thing." He mewed.

"What is it?" Molewhisker mewed puzzled.

"Want to help me stop the lackey group from taking over River-clan?" He asked.

"Sure but it's not going to be easy." Molewhisker mewed to him.

As they day wore on, Molewhisker padded over with a mouse in his jaws. He was checking up on Cherryfall who was staying in the makeshift nursery den.

"Hello." He mewed to his expecting littermate.

"Oh you're back." She mewed.

"Yeah queens get first dibs when it comes to prey." He mewed.

"Yeah I've heard about that and the mutts are enforcing that rule that only expecting and nursing cats get first dibs on the pile." She mewed telling him the rules.

"Thanks for letting me know." He mewed giving her the mouse.

Molewhisker left the nursery as he stumbles across Alderheart. Alderheart was very worried about Bramblestar.

"Bramblestar has been behaving very oddly lately." Alderheart mewed to Molewhisker.

"Why is that?" Molewhisker asked puzzled.

"Stealing prey, attacking Cherryfall and visiting a group of cats that I have no idea of." Alderheart mewed. "He thinks leaders should have dibs but he doesn't care about the cats that have kits." He said.

"Yes and has been plotting something against River-clan." Molewhisker mewed to him.

"What?" Alderheart mewed.

"Let's gather the cats that are with us and help defend River-clan." Molewhisker mewed as they went off to gather Shadow-clan and Wind-clan warriors that were willing to defend River-clan.

Meanwhile with Bramblestar, He was heading off to the gathering Island where the cats have gathered. It was clear they had replaced Moltedclaw with Bramblestar as they began making battle plans. It was clear that all the clans were heading off to war right before every cats eyes. It was going to end in disaster.

 **[A/N]: Hey guys I just wanted to update you on what is happening. I got my last final done so I have a period where I can make more chapters for this and get this finished for all of your views. Also thanks for all the support I'm getting and it's really making me happy. My allergies are better so that is good news. It's uncertain about will I take classes for June, I'll let you be updated on that so you can keep reading. Next chapter will hopefully be up by tomorrow afternoon.**


	14. The Fight

It was clear that the group of cats that met were sneaking through the night, being turned on into murder mode. As they made their way to River-Clan it was clear that someone was spying on them to see what their plan was. As Bramblestar and his lackey's padded past the farm, it was clear that there were eyes locking on to them. As Gastonia was eating a mixture of beans, lettuce, carrots, and spinach, he lifted his head up as he spotted the lackey's padding to River-clan. He had to raise the alarm to the leader.

"I spotted a group of cats." He barked.

"Going where?" The leader asked.

"To River-clan I think." He told the leader.

"Get the group together and we follow." He barked.

Bramblestar's reason of driving out River-clan was the fact they weren't affect by the fire as much, he knew there could still be prey there. As he and the group approached the camp entrance, they all got into position and waited for his signal. Meanwhile, all the other cats that weren't in the lackey's group were rushing to defend River-clan with Molewhisker as the leader. As they rushed with all of their healthy warriors, Molewhisker continued to get more and more nervous thinking he was too late.

Soon Bramblestar lead the charge, as he and the twelve other cats invaded River-clan camp. River-clan quickly picks this up as they charged into the attacking cats claws coming out of their paws as one River-clan cat soon scratched the side of a Wind-clan warrior. Bramblestar Soon confronted Mistystar as he charged at her. The force of the impact was so strong that she fell backwards and Bramblestar seizes her throat. Mistystar soon desperately clawing his sides and raking his under-belly, despite this he wouldn't release his clamp until another cat tackled him causing him to release his grip. It was Molewhisker.

"What are you doing attacking another clan?" Molewhisker yowled trying to tell him to pull out.

Bramblestar instead ignored him as he charged in, but Tigerstar soon tackled in down as he began raking his flanks open. But this was only just the beginning.

The fighting began to get out of control as the cats didn't know who their enemies were so they began attacking each other. Soon Bramblestar encountered Moltedclaw, rage soon filled his eyes.

"What is it?" Moltedclaw mewed not wanting a fight

"You betrayed us!" Bramblestar screeched as he was covered in scratch and bite wounds from fighting the other cats.

"So what now it doesn't matter." Moltedclaw mewed back at him.

It didn't matter as the two cats began to size each other up while the clans were spinning out of control. Bramblestar rushes in ready to attack but the Deputy leaped out of his way causing him to stumble. Moltedclaw soon jumped onto Bramblestar and sunk his teeth into the leader from behind the neck. Bramblestar soon shook him off of him regaining his footing quickly. Bramblestar charges into the deputy as he knocks him backwards, grabbing the cat by the throat and sinking his teeth into him drawing out blood. Moltedclaw was soon able to kick him off with great force, and as he did it left a huge gash in the deputy's neck. Bramblestar soon spun around ready to attack again, as he leaped in with paws spread out; Moltedclaw took his left paw and smacked him across the leader's cheek ripping it open. Bramblestar wailed as blood gushed from his cheek. Bramblestar soon tackled the deputy to the ground and before he was able to take another bite on his neck, he felt something ram him sending him into a tumbling motion. He looked up to see who it was and it was a dog as many of them poured into the fight. It was clear that they wanted to break this fight up.

Bramblestar soon got up as dogs were fighting the cats in their attempt in breaking it up. He soon turned his head as he saw two of the dogs getting Moltedclaw out of the fight. Bramblestar soon charged at them attempting to drive them away. He didn't know he was wandering straight into a trap.

"Get him to safety, I'll protect you." Gastonia barked at the Labrador that was dragging the bleeding deputy away.

Bramblestar leaped on the mutts back digging his claws and teeth into his fur. It doesn't affect him that much due to his thick fur. Gastonia was soon able to buck him off and he was able to regen his footing and as he focused on the leader. Bramblestar soon charged at him again, but this time he was after the dog's flanks to make him slower despite the mutt not being a fast mover. But as he reached out his paw ready to swipe him, Gastonia swings his tail at him striking him in the leg that was about to scratch his flank. Bramblestar stumbled backwards seeing two large puncture marks in his leg that was caused by his tail. Bramblestar had under estimated the same opponent again for the second time.

But as Bramblestar charged in for the third time in a row, one of the mutts charges in and knocks him over. This not only bided time for the mutt to escape but also for Bramblestar's group of lackeys to tire out and call for a retreat back to their territories one by one. Bramblestar got up as he was surrounded by five or six dogs.

"What do you want from me?" Bramblestar cried out. The dogs didn't respond. Instead, they decided to sink their teeth all into Bramblestar as their form of punishment for attacking another group of cats. After that, the dogs decided to let Bramblestar bleed out feeling that they had no empathy for him.

While down on the ground, Bramblestar silently felt his fifth life slipping away into the dust before him. He was down to four lives and as he opened his eyes, he saw Molewhisker and Cloudtail standing over him.

"What are you two doing?" He asked gasping for some air.

"We decided to stay behind so we can get you back to camp." Cloudtail mewed.

"That's thankful of you." Bramblestar responded as the two cats helped him back to camp.

It was clear that the fight didn't solve anything that the clans wanted; it instead brought up more tensions between them seeing how everyone wanted their land. This made the clans a lot more irritable, and to make matters worse, the fight had no clear winner.

As the next couple of days went by, everyone was miserable, there was nothing to eat, very little herbs to treat the injured, plus a fight can spring up from nowhere. As Gastonia was returning home from Wind-clan helping evacuate injured cats from fight. He stared out at the lake which still had water in it. However, he didn't know how long it would last since there was very little of it left.

"What has happened to the temperament of the clans?" He asked seeing how the clans went from being friendly to being very hostile over one another. He dipped his head in sorrow as he went back to the mutt's hideout. Another blood-moon meeting had to be held to decide where this was going to go in what directions.

Meanwhile in Thunder-clan some of the severely injured cats started to get infections in their wounds due to the lack of Goldenrod that was present. The swipe Bramblestar had sustained from Moltedclaw had swelled up like a piece of wet moss soaked in water. It was clear that he caught an infection due to the wound not being treated fast enough.

The next blood moon was coming and the clans were running out of time to think of something quickly.

 **[A/N]: Sorry this took so long, I needed a break from finals. Next part will be up as soon as possible. Thanks.**


	15. What?

It was the second night that the cats and dogs had to join for a meeting. Unlike last time, things were a lot less friendly between them. As Bramblestar entered, the swelling caused by the wound he sustained has caused his left eye to shut so he was half blind. Onestar, Tigerstar, and Mistystar had no problem with entering the meeting so it was Bramblestar that everyone was getting angry over. One of the mutts was trying his best to treat the swelling on Bramblestar but he slapped him with his tail telling him to go away. Squirrelflight was angry at him denying outside help. When Onestar arrived, it was clear Moltedclaw was missing from the group.

"What happened to you deputy?" Bramblestar asked curious.

"He died from his wounds so we had to appoint a new deputy." Onestar lied to Bramblestar trying to prevent another fight between them.

"Well then who's the new deputy?" Bramblestar asked.

"We're still deciding." Onestar told him.

It wasn't long until everyone was settled down so the meeting can begin. The dogs started off.

"Due to what has happened between everyone fighting over River-clan, we won't be giving you anymore food and herbs until you long-claws get your act together." The leader spoke out to the group. This got all the cats either worried or really mad.

"What!" Bramblestar yowled out in fury. "You think you can deny us any of the stuff that we need to survive? What have you dogs become?" He continued to screech.

"Yes." The leader of the mutt's told him bluntly.

Bramblestar couldn't believe this since the dogs were denying them of any help. Soon Bramblestar yells at the leader of the Mutt's for forty minutes. This wasn't going to go anywhere with Bramblestar arguing with the mutt's leader over a simple decision. Soon, all the cats leave and went home seeing how this was not going anywhere. But as Bramblestar was about to leave, the mutt's leader walked over and he spoke to him sternly.

"You messed up big time. If you come back and not apologize to us, we'll tear your throat out." He sneered to him quietly.

A couple days later, Bramblestar has become sick. The infection was eating the side of his face and to add to that, Bramblestar had never bathed and wouldn't accept cats other than Jayfeather to help him.

"What is it?" Cloudtail mewed worried.

"I got herbs to treat his sickness but he needs marigold and goldenrod for the infection to be treated properly. But since this leader has stubbornly screwed everything over, we can't get any more of those herbs." Jayfeather mewed.

"I will try my best to get those herbs." Cloudtail mewed.

"Well hurry since I don't want Bramblestar losing another life." Jayfeather mewed.

Soon Cloudtail, gathered Molewhisker, Brightheart, Thornclaw, and Alderheart to go look for those herbs. They left the camp as they searched the entire forest. But they mainly came up empty handed when they checked all of the places where the herbs would normally be found but it was no use. Soon Thornclaw was called back to camp to get a couple of extra warriors to help them cover more ground. Squirrelflight and Leafpool were heading with Thornclaw as they all linked back together.

"What do we do next?" Thornclaw asked.

"Check around the borders to see what we could find anything." Cloudtail ordered as they all went around as they all checked the borders.

So they decided the herbs would still be growing where the rivers used to run to the lake. But what they didn't know was the rivers quickly dried up so there were no herbs growing there. They soon met back up to say that they found nothing.

"Do we simply give up?" Asked Alderheart exhausted.

"We must still keep looking." Cloudtail insisted.

An unfamiliar noise began to rip its way through the forest as the seven cats worked their way towards the point where the noise was coming from. Once they made their way to where the noise it was coming from, it was two Great Danes that had packed large amounts of herbs.

"Perfect." Leafpool mewed.

"I and Brightheart will distract them. The rest of you snag." Cloudtail mewed as they all creeped on the two dogs. The dogs were named Tim and Jim and Tim was talking about the trees.

"I love the trees! There's so many tree-eees!" Tim shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Hey look a ball." Jim said as he batted a moss ball from under a large oak.

"SHUT UP JIM!" Tim shouted at him before he continued to shout. "There are so many trees! I like the trees more than I like Jim! Jim's an idiot and the tree is yummy!" He shouted as he took a bite from one of the smaller trees, he quickly spat it out tasting fire smoked ash.

"Hey look, cats." Jim said as he spotted Cloudtail and Birghtheart.

"That's it Jim!" Tim shouted before he turned his head spotting them.

"Can we see u. Jim?" Asked Cloudtail curiously.

"Sure." Tim said as he played along with their plan.

Soon the two cats began to lead Jim away as they began to talk to him, unaware that Tim was about to be gang attacked by Thornclaw and his party. As they began to slowly walk up hill through the burned forest, a barking and hissing party began as the cats were clearly attacking something. Jim turned around as he began to navigate down the hill, soon silhouettes of Thornclaw and his party came bursting through carrying piles of Marigold and Goldenrod in their mouths.

"Looks like our job is done." Cloudtail mewed as he trailed the Thornclaw's party of cats back to the camp.

Meanwhile Jim came running over to see Tim in a bloody mess, it was clear that Thornclaw and his friends attacked him and stole all the herbs.

"What is it my friend?" Jim asked.

"I… ate… too many… Trees!" Tim shouted before he coughed hard. Soon he passed out from his injuries. Jim had to drag his friend to safety to avoid any more attention being drawn to him.

Cloudtail and his clan return the Thunder-clan camp with the herbs but it was clear that they were too late. As they entered the camp it was clear that a dark lifeless body was laying limp.

"What is it?" Cloudtail asked staring over the lifeless body.

"It's Bramblestar, he's lost another life." Jayfeather mewed was water welled up in his eyes.

"We got the herbs though." Cloudtail mewed trying to cheer Jayfeather up.

"Thanks." Jayfeather mewed as he quickly put the two herbs together into a pulp, then he rubbed it over the infected cuts to make sure they heal quickly. After that he wrapped the wounds up with cobwebs spun from spiders. Bramblestar soon woke up, he was dazed and confused on what happened when he was passed out.

"What happened?" He mewed puzzled.

"You lost your sixth life. You're down to three now." Mewed Jayfeather.

"You need to learn not to be so reckless." Cloudtail insisted.

"It's best if you rest." Advised Jayfeather wanting the leader to feel better.

"You're probably right." Bramblestar mewed as he fell asleep due to his body being really sore.

That night, Poppyfrost and Molewhisker were advised to carry out the sundown patrols when they come across a familiar face before them. It was Gastonia, it was clear that he was having nightmares.

"What's wrong?" She mewed.

"After what the leader said is that we can't be together anymore." He barked nervously.

"It's fine." She mewed assuring him that there was nothing wrong.

"How?" He asked as the three of them padded down to a dried up moon pool.

"We're still here are we?" Molewhisker asked.

"I guess so." He responded back.

Soon the three of them fell asleep as their noses touched the dry cracked earth around the moon pool, soon they woke up seeing they are in the land of endless hunting.

"Where are we?" The mutt asked puzzled.

"We're in Star-clan." Poppyfrost mewed to the mutt.

"Oh I see now." Gastonia said as they wandered through the land. "So this is where you die and this is your version of the After-life?" He questioned wanting an answer.

"It is in fact." Molewhisker said. "It's where we also go to visit our ancestors to see if they would give us any news." He continued.

Soon they came across three familiar cats as they were all talking about how much fun their lives were. Their names were Firestar, Bluestar, and Spottedleaf respectively.

"Oh hey Molewhisker, we weren't expecting you." Firestar greeted the young cat. He soon turned and saw the mutt that was among them. "I see you have a guest with you." He remarked.

"I thought there will be no dogs in Star-clan." Bluestar mewed sternly.

"No we just came for help." Poppyfrost mewed.

"Help? For what?" Spottedleaf perked herself up to them.

"You see our clan is suffering from a drought that we can't stand and we were wondering when the rain will come?" Molewhisker mewed.

"We will make it rain as long as you finish Bramblestar off for us." Bluestar mewed.

"Kill Bramblestar? But why?" Gastonia asked as Thunder-clan wanted their leader dead for the rain.

"Because when Bramblestar came for his nine lives, he told us that Wind-clan was jerks, River-clan was hogs of the lake and Shadow-clan as cats who bluff so he had to put his clan above the others." Bluestar told the mutt to show him that Bramblestar was going insane.

"Is he being driven by insanity?" Asked Molewhisker.

"I'm afraid he is." Spottedleaf told the cat.

"And killing our own leader would be good if the rain will come back?" Asked Poppyfrost. "Is it really sane?"

"I'm afraid to say this but because of the drought, Bramblestar is now mentally broken." Mewed Firestar with sorrow and grief.

"Is there anything to make the clans better and green again?" Asked Molewhisker.

"Either kill him or drive him out of the clan and get a new leader. It's all that needs to be done." Bluestar mewed.

"If that's what you want, then we'll do it." Gulped Poppyfrost as she felt guilty about this as the two cats left.

"Hey uh mutt, before you can go we may want to have a word with you." Mewed Firestar.

"What is it?" Gastonia asked. "Why am I having nightmares about Bramblestar?" He continued.

"It's probably because Bramblestar is out for your blood." Spottedleaf mewed.

"What do I do to keep him away?" He asked curious.

"The advice is stay away from the clans until the drought is over, then everyone can live normal lives." Firestar mewed.

"What if Spottedleaf was right and he is out for my blood. What do I do then?" He asked.

"Try using your tail, it's your best means of defending yourself." Firestar advised. "One good swing with that tail can disable him from tearing open your neck. And all of that thick matted fur will come in handy if he decides to attack." He continued.

"We wish you luck and you can prove that you're more than just a big friendly fluff ball." Spottedleaf mewed as the three cats faded away to live another day.

As soon as Gastonia woke up, he headed away from the clans thinking that Molewhisker and Poppyfrost didn't say goodbye to him. It was clear that the fight will shift to a personal manner.

 **[A/N]: I do have the guts to kill off Bramblestar sometime in the near future. Probably to get this story done faster so I had to condense some parts together. And to spoil something in the near future is that Bramblestar will fight Gastonia solo on the dried up lake without either side interfearing. Just some foreshadowing for you.**


	16. Full Moon

As the next couple of weeks went by, Bramblestar's condition began to improve. The swelling in his face went down, and he no longer felt tired. But there was almost nothing to eat until now. He wondered where Cloudtail and a couple of other cats went off to.

"Where have they gone off to?" He asked.

"They went hunting." Cherryfall mewed to him.

"How long until they get back?" Bramblestar mewed curious.

"Hopefully soon." She responded.

Soon Cloudtail and his hunting party padded into camp with large amounts of deer meat in the jaws. Bramblestar quickly came to question about this.

"What is it Cloudtail? Where did you get the prey from?" Bramblestar mewed as he ate some of the deer meat.

"Bramblestar, the deer are dying all over the clans." Cloudtail mewed to Bramblestar to tell him about what has been happening. "We also got news that deer bodies are also found in Shadow-clan." He also told him.

Sure enough, Cloudtail was right. The lack of water and food were starting to strangle all the local animals that lived around the clans. This meant the clan cats could have a grace period of where they can gorge on prey freely without getting into risky clashes. However the surplus was just an illusion, once that was gone the clans will starve too.

"You think that we should attend the next gathering?" Cherryfall mewed.

"We should but you're not coming Cherryfall." Bramblestar mewed

"Why? I need some time to stretch my legs." She mewed.

"What about your kits? You need to rest." Bramblestar mewed.

"Fine." She sighed as laid back down.

Soon Bramblestar takes Cloudtail, Thornclaw, and Molewhisker with him again. Squirrelflight and Leafpool were put in charge of watching the camp while they were gone and they agree to do so. As they arrived to the island where the gathering was taking place, Bramblestar soon began gossiping with Tigerstar before the gathering had begun with Bramblestar beginning everything that has went down in the clan's territories. As Molewhisker looked to see if the dogs have come to the gathering, he realized that the incident between them and Bramblestar that as a result the dogs weren't coming to anymore of these gatherings. It wasn't because they didn't believe in Star-clan, but they couldn't trust Bramblestar's insanity. Bramblestar started off about the deer situation.

"For the past half moon, we've been seeing deer bodies across the Thunder-clan territory but we don't know what is causing this." He mewed.

"We've seen three in just 6 sunrises." Tigerstar mewed.

"So does this mean free prey for everyone?" Asked Mistystar.

"It is and we must take advantage of this." Bramblestar mewed.

"So it is." Onestar happily mewed.

"Yes but Cloudtail thinks that this just an illusion and we will starve." He said shaming the fluffy white tom.

"Yeah but what if Cloudtail is right?" Asked Tigerstar.

"Explain." Bramblestar growled.

"If Cloudtail thinks this is just temporary supply and we eat it all, then what do we hunt until this drought is over?" Tigerstar mewed.

"Then we hunt the dogs then." Bramblestar insisted. This made Molewhisker horrified seeing that he was going to hunt his friends down soon enough.

"What about foxes and badgers, they would be weak from prey deprivation, can we hunt them instead of the dogs."

"Hunt whatever you wish." Bramblestar said completely smug about it.

After the gathering was over, all the cats went home feeling really angry and upset over the fact that they would rather have their old prey back and not the newer harsher diet that they have been eating.

However during all of this time, the mutts were having a meeting of their own to discuss the clan cat's extreme behavior and the insane decisions that arose from this.

"One of our mutts has been having nightmares." The leader pointed out.

"Yes but what has been causing them?" Another dog asked.

"He says that a cat under the name of Bramblestar wants him dead because we tried to get allies to fight against Tyranno.

"You think he might be working for him." Asked the Labrador.

"Bramblestar doesn't know who Tyranno is nor would they get along." The leader barked.

"Did Gastonia visit any of the spirits while he was away?" One of the mutts asked.

"I did actually." Gastonia responded.

"What did they say?" The leader asked puzzled.

"They said they would bring the rain back if Bramblestar was killed. But there's a catch to this." He sighed.

"What's the catch then?" Asked the leader puzzled.

"I have to kill him myself without any help from either the cats or you." He said.

"If you are going to fight him, just remember your training and experience and you should be able to take him down one leg after another." The leader advised him. "Use your tail. Those pieces of fur on it are hard enough to break a cat's leg if swung with enough force." He said.

"Just be careful on how he attacks." He told him.

"I will and I promise." Gastonia said to him remembering his advice.

Soon the dogs got up as they left to head back to where they were as the sun began to rise over. It was clear that they wanted to repair their relationships with the clan cats but it was going to be a slippery slope on how they were going to be able to fix it to see how they were going to get to that point.

Bramblestar has had enough of what others have said that he wanted nothing to do with the other clans but more importantly, he wanted to get rid of Cherryfall one way or another. But Alderheart was doing his best to protect her. As the sun rose over a new day, it was clear that he wasn't the only one who was struggling to stay alive.

Today was startling because he was leading a patrol of about 5 cats to the drying up lake which the water reduced to a small shallow pond. And to make things more disturbing, the lake was littered around with dead deer that the two legs were desperately trying to remove. The deer that were still living however were being captured and taken somewhere else to avoid dehydration and starvation. But Bramblestar cared very little about this so he decided to make most of it while it lasted. He and all the other clans were dragging chunks of deer meat back to the clans and it made up more than half of their diet. They thought this misfortune was a gift that they don't need to hunt as much.

The mutts were horrified that the deer were all dead along the stretches and slopes of the lake as they thought who could have killed off all of the animals. But talking to Bramblestar wasn't the best option so they went back to think about it over.

Meanwhile with River-clan, Mistystar was digging in the dried up river bed as she discovered a fish in its protective cocoon. She wasn't left alone to eat it for herself for long. Soon four or five more cats from her clan show up to try to take the fish from under her nose, this resulted from lots of hissing as the clan was longing for the sweet taste of fish and they didn't want to share it. Wind-clan and Shadow-clan were in ruin due to the mutts pulling out because of Bramblestar. They have every reason to get mad at Thunder-clan, they wanted to attack as a result but they didn't have enough herbs or healthy cats to take them on.

This would be a hard time for all the clans to take the stakes.


	17. Play Fighting

The next couple of day was a hassle for the clans. Not only were the two-legs stealing the food in an attempt of cleaning up the lake, but they were cutting the lines for the clans to have some deer meat for consumption. Alderheart was found out by Bramblestar who was yelling at him for breaking the rule of "Medicine cats shouldn't have kits." and he was yelled at for 60 minutes straight and rightfully punished of not seeing Cherryfall again. Not only was he upset that he was not able to be hanging out with the other ginger colored cat which he had grown to like.

"Uh excuse me Mister Narrator?" Asked Alderheart. "Would this be permanent?" He asked as he was feeling lonely without the she cat to talk to.

"Let's hope not." The narrator reassured him hoping this wouldn't be permanent. "Anyways back to the story."

Continuing where we left off, Poppyfrost and Molewhisker had padded down to the lakebed to see their friend as they were going to teach him how to fight back. Cloudtail arrived with several deer legs as he puts the legs into the ground as he puts enough soil around the legs to prevent them from shifting and he made sure to pack the soil down tight so they wouldn't move.

"Everything is set into place." Molewhisker mewed.

"Yes and all we need to do is look for our friend." Poppyfrost mewed after him.

"Well he better hurry or what's left of the lake will dry up." Cloudtail mewed.

Cloudtail looked over to see that the lake was no more than a large puddle. It was clear that it wouldn't last for much longer nor would it quench their thirst. Soon a familiar face plotted along the soft sand along the lake and by his observation, the crows were on his back.

"You made it all right." Poppyfrost greeted Gastonia who immediately went to the puddle to take a drink.

"Hot day?" Gastonia asked puzzled.

"Yeah it is. But we're going to teach you how to defend yourself from any type of attack since you're pretty harmless but you need to learn to defend yourself." Poppyfrost mewed to him.

"Sure thing." He responded as he looked at all the bones which were tail lengths away from him.

"All you need to do is swing that tail to deal with the bones around you." Poppyfrost instructed him.

Gastonia looked around seeing the bones. Tension of nervousness was beginning to build around him as he soon tucked his legs underneath him as he began to nervously swing his tail from side to side. Soon it got to point where he took one swing with his tail and then the bone he had hit has become dislodged from the soil despite the fact that it was tightly packed together.

"Wow I never knew you can dislodge something that tightly packed together." Cloudtail remarked.

"Try it again." Molewhisker mewed as he put the same deer leg bone into the soil packing it down.

Gastonia knowing what to do this time swings his tail onto the same object. Instead of dislodging it, he breaks the deer leg bone in half due to the bone being really hollow from the drought.

"I never knew that you can that." Molewhisker remarked as he collected the broken bone to study it. Cloudtail and Poppyfrost ordered Gastonia to break the rest of the bones with his tail. Gastonia agrees with this immediately.

Gastonia soon began to break the rest of the hollow deer leg bones with his tail. It took some practice and relying on a strong yet swift movement with his tail. Gastonia even managed to dislodge one of the deer leg bones as soon as he broke it. Molewhisker collected the pieces of broken bones to study them. He was shocked to see what he had discovered.

"You might want to see this." He mewed as he laid them in a line. "The drought is so bad that the bones are starting to get hollow due to lack of plants for them to eat." Molewhisker told everyone about it.

"Can this happen to us?" Poppyfrost mewed worried about getting hollow bones due to the lack of the necessary nutrients to make a warrior's bones strong, let alone any other animal bones.

"It is almost certain." Molewhisker mewed.

"Should we tell the leader?" Cloudtail mewed.

"No, he'll yell at us thinking he's invincible and nothing can go wrong." Molewisker told him.

"Can we continue training the mutt then?" Cloudtail asked.

"Okay then." Molewhisker mewed with a smile across his muzzle.

Soon, Molewhisker's idea of having Gastonia deal with the three of them at once was soon put into action. It was also a good idea to get the mutt trained as much as possible in case he had to fight Bramblestar in the near future.

"All right here's the next task, fight the three of us at once, and we determine if you're really a fighter." Molewhisker mewed to him as the crows hopped off his back to take a bath in a puddle and drink from there as well.

"Deal." Gastonia said as he was ready as adrenaline was pumping into his veins.

Soon the three cats charged at him ready to play fight to test his skills. Gastonia swings his tail to the left causing Cloudtail to fall back to avoid any sort of injury. The other two simply leaped over his back as he turned to face them. Cloudtail charged in but he soon was forced to leap to the right as the mutt's tail whipped to the right. Poppyfrost soon moved in to nip him on the front leg. But Gastonia had other ideas as he soon lifted and relocated his front legs a mouse length further than her so Poppyfrost's jaws snapped closed a moment to early.

"You're actually good at his." Poppyfrost remarked.

"Thank you." He replied as he turned his tail to the right causing Cloudtail to jump away and he quickly loses his balance as Cloudtail has fallen face first into the sand.

The crows were nearby as they watched the cats trying to tag team him as part of their tests. This type of game went on for hours they were starting to tire under the setting sun.

"How much can he put up with this?" Asked Poppyfrost who was panting due to exhaustion?

"He can do this forever, and the sun is setting so we need to end our games soon and head for home." Cloudtail panted.

"Not until I get a nip on one of his legs." Molewhisker mewed like a kit as he charged in in an attempt of nipping his flanks.

Gastonia swings his tail to the left as the tip of his spike like tail that was made of matted and sticky fur, cuts Molewhisker's cheek as blood trickled down from it. Molewhisker padded back as Cloudtail took a look at it, it was a very minor cut that will heal quickly and he would feel better within the next sunrise.

"That was a lot of fun." Molewhisker mewed as he had fun tangling with a dog.

"I know but we should rest up and head for home." Gastonia said as he handed the deer legs to Molewhisker.

"Hey can I speak to you?" Poppyfrost mewed urging the other two cats to go ahead of her.

"What is it that you want?" Gastonia asked curiously.

"Want to come join Thunder-clan?" Poppyfrost asked nicely.

"I can't. Bramblestar will most likely tear me to pieces." He responded. "It's not like I have had much of a home to begin with."

"So you are?" Poppyfrost mewed.

"A stray." Gastonia responded dipping his head. "Everyone else in my group has a home but me." He said walking in the opposite direction.

"I never knew you had nowhere to live." Poppyfrost mewed with sorrow as she felt sorry for him.

"I always wanted a home just like how you want the clans to be green and wet again." He responded to her. "That is how I developed this tail of mine as of a means of protecting me from those who want to attack."

"I never knew you had all of that thick fur due to neglect. But at least it helps you at protecting you from those who wants to attack." Poppyfrost mewed telling him there is nothing to get upset over. "Even if you get a home and you no longer have that thick fur, I'll teach you how to fight like a real dog. Just be proud that you have some friends who care about you and your key to happiness is that you keep yourself around those who care about you."

"You really so sure like you know all of this?" Gastonia asked cheering up a little.

"I don't but it's all I know about." Poppyfrost mewed snuggling up to his neck fur which felt soft underneath her. "Well this means goodbye." She mewed as she gave a smooch on the mutt's left cheek to make him feel better that he has others to care for him.

Poppyfrost took off back to Thunder-clan camp as the crows flew onto a lumbering Gastonia as he headed back to the barn. Eventually, things will get better with the clans.


	18. Evicted

The next couple of weeks went by and the water was reduced to nothing but a sandy pond with nothing to drink. Usually the cats and the dogs would gather together on the blood moon night but due to Bramblestar's relationship with the dogs. The dogs decided to call the meetings off until Bramblestar gets his act together. What Jayfeather found out that Bramblestar was slowly becoming more and more insane and taking it out on the cats that he deemed "Breaking the code?" Soon much of the clan was fed up with him and they were ready to drive him out.

The day started normally with no prey to be found in sight. In fact, this drought was so bad that the foxes and badgers migrated to the coast to look for easier food. The occasional mouse, rabbit or bird would be found and caught for the clan. Bramblestar soon urged Jayfeather to keep Alderheart as a medicine cat and kill Cherryfall's kits when they were born. Jayfeather quickly refuses to do such a cruel task and he suggest for him to get another apprentice to become a medicine cat and let the two cats to have a happy life. Bramblestar wanted to force his son to be the next medicine cat but it was no use. Alderheart wanted to quit his training and he received major scolding from Bramblestar.

Later on, Bramblestar gets mad at Molewhisker when he told him that they might be getting weak bones and muscles due to the fact that the scarce prey is breaking down their bodies to keep them energized for the hunts and patrols. Bramblestar soon continued to argue with him.

"Maybe you should listen and we should warn the clans about this." Molewhisker told Bramblestar who was ignoring him.

"I don't care." Bramblestar mewed ignoring his warrior's commands.

"Maybe if you listened for once you might still have a couple more lives left." Molewhisker told him to try to change his mind and for him to stop being so reckless.

"I don't care about that too." He replied as he padded out of the den.

"If you would stop being so ignorant, then we would still have outside help." Molewhisker said but his calls fell on silent ears.

Molewhisker looked down as Bramblestar was sneaking up ready to attack Cherryfall who was talking to Alderheart about whether it was a good choice to give up being a medicine cat and instead focus on the future ahead for their kits. As soon as he was ready to sink his teeth into her neck.

"Look out!" Molewhisker yowled and he leaped onto the back of a very angry Bramblestar and he sinks his teeth into the leader's thick scruff.

Bramblestar soon felt a thud land on him as he spun seeing Molewhisker attempting to save his littermate from certain death. Bramblestar soon bucks him off as he turned ready to sink his teeth into the tom's neck. Alderheart leaped onto his father's back as he began to swipe his sides open with his claws. Molewhisker quickly recovered as he charged in once more sinking his teeth in his leader's throat. Soon others began to join as they were ready to turn the tables against their leader, even Jayfeather and the kits couldn't resist giving payback to Bramblestar for his cruel rules, harsh relationships and his insanity.

Bramblestar soon became desperate for a way out as many as nine cats leaped onto him at once. Desperately bucking them off, he soon darted for the camp exit as soon as the smaller cats held onto him as they continued to desperately hang on He barreled through the exit as the branches smacked the smaller cats off. Soon Molewhisker came up with an idea on how to stop Bramblestar in his tracks.

"Follow me." Mewed for certain cats to follow him as Bramblestar raced to Tigerstar for help, but Molewhisker crossed the river meeting him at the bridge as the leader was desperate to finding flat land for the fastest route to him. Bramblestar was soon in trouble.

Surrounded, Bramblestar stood his ground as Molewhisker soon lead the second assault on their leader with Squirrelflight on his back drawing blood from his back and Poppyfrost sinks her long white teeth into his leg preventing him from going anywhere. Molewhisker was attacking Bramblestar's face when Bramblestar smacks him with his paws as he sent the warrior off the bridge and into the dried up creek Poppyfrost decided to let him go as she dashed to help her kit who wasn't moving. She nuzzled him to see if he was okay, but he wasn't responding.

Bramblestar looked down as he saw the tortoiseshell she cat attending to her fallen son. He darted off the bridge ready to sink his teeth into her neck. But Berrynose quickly rams him as the leader was crashed against the thick, densely packed soil of the creek as he fell down feeling hurt.

"How did you know you were going to save me?" Asked Poppyfrost.

"I don't want the same thing to happen to Honeyfern." Mewed Berrynose as he stood protecting his mate.

Bramblestar soon got up feeling exhausted as many as ten cats closed in from all sides. A Shadow-clan patrol was watching this as the Thunder-clan cats assaulted their leader ready for round three.

"Should we help them?" Asked one of the warriors.

"No this is a fight that should be won on their own." Tigerstar mewed as he continued to lead the patrol.

Bramblestar was ready to take his to vent his anger on Berrynose. He leaped up onto him knocking him backwards as he grabbed the tom's throat drawing out blood. But Poppyfrost rushes in at the very last second and she sinks her teeth and claws into Bramblestar's neck throwing him off. Berrynose lightly watched as he fell limp and Poppyfrost raked her leader's soft underbelly with her claws as well as clamping her jaws around her abusive leader's windpipe as she crunched on it. Bramblestar soon fell limp feeling it was simply too much as he collapsed. Poppyfrost went over to tend to Molewhisker.

"Wake up." She mewed desperately as she licked him trying to get signs of life from him. She continued to do this for another two minutes until his eyes finally opened. Molewhisker was dazed and disorientated from hitting the creek bed but he soon stood up feeling weak.

"Thank Star-Clan your still here." She mewed as she cried feeling that her son was still alive for her. Poppyfrost soon turned to the second cat whose neck was bleeding badly.

"Please tell me he won't be going to Star-clan either." She mewed completely worried for her mate.

"He won't, he's lucky to still be here but it is uncertain if he would make it." Jayfeather mewed to her seeing how Berrynose's neck was nearly torn apart. Berrynose weakly opened his eyes staring at her before he passed out again.

"Get the wounded back to camp while we deal with him." Jayfeather mewed pointing at Bramblestar as his seventh life slowly faded from him due to him taking a very hard beating.

"Got it." Poppyfrost mewed telling him to get her mate and her son back to camp to be treated.

Bramblestar soon woke up very weak and dazed from the fight. Squirrelflight was standing over him and she was very mad of him.

"Leave." She hissed at him.

"You don't want me to stay?" Asked Bramblestar confused at what the she cat wants.

"You tried to deny help, you start fights and you try to kill cats from your own clan to fulfill your selfish needs." Squirrelflight yowled as she was closed to crying.

"Let me make you feel better." Bramblestar cooed for the she cat.

"I said leave!" She hissed swiping at his face.

Bramblestar was ready for another fight when 4 cats came charging at him. He knew he couldn't lose another life as he turned and fled with the cats on hot pursuit. They soon came to a point in the creek that they chased him out from their lands and stopped the chase all together.

"Will he come back?" Asked Ivypool.

"We should have patrols to be able to keep a look out in case he decides to come back and we'll force him out again." Squirrelflight mewed.

"Let's head back to camp." Dovewing suggested as she and the others padded back to camp.

As soon as they got back to camp, Jayfeather was treating the two cats injuries they received in battle. Molewhisker only received a minor concussion to the head when he fell off the bridge and he would be able to recover quickly. Berrynose needs constant attention to make sure that his neck doesn't become infected. Luckily they have the leftover mixture and they apply to the throat wounds to make sure they didn't become infected.

"How long until Berrynose will completely recover?" Asked Poppyfrost worried about him.

"Maybe half a moon but it will be a long one." Jayfeather mewed to her.

"But the lack of water, how will he drink to recover?" Asked Poppyfrost.

"We might as well dig into the creek for water or we could apologize to the dogs first and request for their aid." Jayfeather suggested.

"I say we apologize to them." Squirrelflight mewed to him.

"Then it's settled. Jayfeather mewed as they went to sleep at once.

The next sunrise, Squirrelflight and a small group of cats head over to the mutt's main hangout spot to send an apology to them. When they got there, the mutts were talking nonsense like usual. When they arrived the mutts looked at them as the leader headed over and he spoke.

"What brings you here today?" He asked wanting to give the clan cats a second chance.

"We would like to apologize." Squirrelflight insisted.

"Oh how your clans was not accepting our offerings." The leader told her before pausing, someone was missing from the group. "Where's Bramblestar?" He asked confused.

"We drove him out due to the fact that he tried to kill some of us last night." Squirrelflight mewed telling him the painful truth.

"That's a pity but at least you came and said you're sorry. Come and join with us for some food." The leader said as he gave the half-starved cats some fresh rabbits. The clan cats ate happily as one of the mutts began to tell a very ridiculous story.

"It's called the Story of Honk." He began.

"Go on." Cloudtail said excited wanting to hear about this.

"The Ankys were in a lab before they broke through the Danger Floof defenses. They grew in numbers and the Danger Floof that stared at all of this and all he heard before he died was HONK!" He said telling the tale.

"I wonder if Ankys and Danger Floofs were really enemies of each other?" Asked Squirrelflight.

"They gave us no warning, only honk!" The mutt said.

"Now that would be an interesting idea for a movie." Cloudtail mewed.

"Now consider that should be made a movie rather than us having a movie." Squirrelflight mewed happy. "It's a lot more fun." She mewed.

"Then our relationships have been repaired?" Asked the Mutt leader feeling happy.

"Yes it is." She mewed feeling better as the mutts offered plenty of water and prey to bring back to the clan. They happily take the gift.

As it turned out that the clans and the mutts relationship was slowly being rebuilt as they all began to be happy knowing that there was light at the very end of the tunnel. Things were slowly getting better for the clans as they were happy once more.

Sadly Bramblestar had the most to lose. Not only did he have two lives left, but the clans wanted him dead and there was still little to eat and nothing to drink. Things looked bleak for him comping up in the near future.

 **[A/N]: I would like to say thank you to Pebblewish for seeing this as it encourages me to finish this up and begin work on the other fanfics I was starting to think about. However my June class begins at June 4** **th** **and I will tell you when things will begin to slow down. Anyways, I hope your still enjoying this.**


	19. The New Leader

Things were becoming very bleak for Bramblestar who no longer had the protection of his clans to rely on. But it also meant looking for food in a forest full of dangers. Since the drought was still going on, it made life even harder for him. He felt really mad and frustrated with himself and he was ready to vent it whoever he came across first. Bramblestar soon spotted a dead rabbit in the clearing, and he went to check it. The rabbit had very little meat on it so it must have died due to starvation. He picked up the rabbit as he devoured it, it wasn't much for him but it would help keep him off from starving. But he knew he has to have fresh meat. So he padded away to find more rabbits to eat.

Back in Thunder-clan, they were still getting over about having no leader. Shadowpaw agreed that he will be the new medicine cat apprentice and Alderheart also agreed on if Jayfeather dies before Shadowpaw's training was complete, Alderheart will step in and take his place temporary until Shadowpaw's training would be done. Squirrelflight wanted to be leader but she knew she was aging alongside Cloudtail who the fluffy white tom was over 120 moons old and she wanted to retire. A bunch of the older warriors wanted to also retire to the elders den seeing that they were becoming too old to keep up with normal duties. That soon eliminated a large portion of the cats chances of becoming the new leader so it down to the other half of cats who were young but also smart enough to try to lead.

"I think he should lead." One cat mewed

"No I should lead." Alderheart mewed.

"What about Jayfeather?" Asked Cherryfall questioning her mate's decision.

"I think when the mutts come, they should decide who will be the leader/" Poppyfrost mewed before she turned to check on Molewhisker and Berrynose.

When she arrived to the medicine cat's den, Molewhisker perked up to her and he greeted her warmly. Poppyfrost wanted to ask Jayfeather about the condition of her mate and her two kits.

"How are they doing?" She mewed.

"Molewhisker has fully recovered and I just released him back to normal duties as of today. Berrynose can speak now but his neck still has a big gash in it. And Cherryfall will have her kits really soon." Jayfeather told her.

"That's great to hear." Poppyfrost mewed as she headed out of the medicine cat's dean to see Molewhisker on the leader's ledge organizing hunting parties and patrols.

"Molewhisker what are you doing?" Asked Poppyfrost puzzled at the tom's actions.

"I'm practicing being leader if I decided to get picked." He mewed.

"Well you're not doing a very good job at it." Poppyfrost mewed as she gently tackled and tickled him.

"Poppyfrost please stop." Molewhisker mewed as she tickled him with her paws.

"I know practice makes perfect, but you're not that experienced of being the leader of the clan." She mewed as she stopped tickling her tom kit.

Soon about three mutts from the Mutt gang arrived at Thunder-clan camp to decide who had the skills of being the leader. Soon Molewhisker, Alderheart, Dovewing and Ivypool were all chosen by the dogs and they would complete a series of tasks that will determine who will be the next leader. The rules were, "If you messed up, you were automatically disqualified." The first task was making announcements about turning kits into apprentices, apprentices into warriors and so on and so forth. Molewhisker and Ivypool nailed it with ease. Dovewing was a bit nervous but she managed to pass. Alderheart who did nothing but be in the medicine cats den had no experience with making announcements so he completely messed up with that. The dogs were not happy about that.

"Alderheart I regret to say this but you're out for not saying the protocol of how to hold a clan meeting." The mutt said sadly turning it down to just three.

Next was leading your clan on trips. Molewhisker had some experience leading out of the clan to go to the island and to the Moonpool. He made sure to go slowly but he nearly got disqualified for keeping an eye on the environment. Dovewing did the task with ease as she followed all the rules. Ivypool felt scared in the big dense forest of burned trees thinking Bramblestar could have been anywhere ready to attack. And as a result the Mutt said to her.

"Ivypool I regret to say this but you're out for being too slow to get from one location to your desired target of traveling." And as a result, it was just down to just Molewhisker and Dovewing.

The last test was how to lead your clan into battle and fight the other team, but this time the rules were even stricter. You couldn't wound a cat or dog in this part of the test. If you did, you were automatically disqualified leaving the last cat left the winner of being the next cat of Thunder-clan. Everyone got into their desired points of how to attack. Molewhisker and Dovewing were eyeing each other ready to fight for be the last cat standing.

"And go!" One of the mutts shouted as all the cats began to play fight like a bunch of kits. The dogs watched to see who would be the first to be kicked out and having a decisive winner.

Molewhisker felt Dovewing tackle him as he batted her playfully. She soon fell off as he nipped her like a playful kit. She laughed at this. Bramblestar looked at his clan who looked at his former clan fight like a bunch of dopey kits.

"They should be fighting like warriors not like dumb kits." He muttered to himself as he turned and disappeared into the underbrush.

Since both displayed great fighting skills on how to fight each other, then came faze two. Take out the threat that is trying to attack your clan. Same rules were applied as one mutt for each team was given to them. Then the fight had begun.

"Hey Molewhisker, I bet you can't fight your friends." Dovewing taunted at him as she batted the dog's fluffy soft ear.

The mutts decided to not put up much of a fight knowing that they were just playing with them. Molewhisker continued to play softly with his friends. However, Dovewing was starting to get cocky as she taunted the tom for not playing too hard. What she didn't realize that she was playing too hard herself as she accidently scratches one of the dog's legs open. The leader ordered for the event to stop.

Alderheart was called in to patch up the dogs small cut on his leg as the one who saw this went up to Dovewing and he said with regret.

"I'm sorry but you're out for breaking the rules of no hurting anyone. Even if was just a tiny scratch." He said.

"I understand." Dovewing sighed. Although she didn't become leader, she was at least happy to make it this far. The mutts turned to Molewhisker as they asked.

"Are you sure that you want Star-clan to light your future ahead for you?" Asked the Mutt to Molewhisker.

"I certainly will." He responded.

Just before they were about to announce to the clan that Molewhisker had won the challenge and will be the next Thunder-clan leader when Wind-clan tumbles into their territory a bloody mess with some grave news.

"What is it?" Asked Molewhisker.

"Onestar has lost his last life and he will be heading off Star-clan." One of the cats said.

"What happened?" He asked

"Onestar and a dark brown rouge got into a fight and we chased him off but we were too late." The cat said with sorrow.

"It must be Bramblestar." All the Thunder-clan cats together.

"But who will take his place?" Molewhisker mewed.

"Moltedclaw is still recovering from a throat infection he caught from that big fight we had but he's still too sick to lead us. Harespring is the only option we have since he's still healthy." He mewed.

"Then we'll have to finish off Bramblestar first before we can begin making Molewhisker the new leader." The mutt said to the as he asked Alderheart to treat the Wind-clan cats to be treated. They knew they had to finish off Bramblestar first before deciding who will be the leader.

The next couple of days go by and Bramblestar was looking worse than ever. Not only was he starving, but the cut on his side that he sustained from Onestar wasn't healing properly. He had only caught two pieces of prey when he was exiled from Thunder-clan but it wasn't enough for him to recover. Bramblestar slumped under the large birch tree where many cats have passed before as his eighth life was fading away before him. He was starting to regret making the decision of being arrogant with his clan but he knew it was too late to rejoin them seeing how he not trusted by anyone. He was down to one life left.

"You have only one life left. Use it wisely." A voice told him that was being heard from.

"I must use my remaining strength to kill the forsaken mutt who did all of this in the first place." He said. Tt was clear that he wasn't after the clans but a dog.

 **[A/N]: It is coming up and I'm so excited to put two and two together. Choosing Molewhisker to be the next leader was kind of unintentional, but Squirrelflight wants to retire soon due to her age of over 100 moons old so she's getting pretty old of her duties alongside a bunch of other cats. Also I didn't realize until recently that Onestar died in the original stories, so I decided to kill him off to follow in suit with the stories. So he might have lived a bit longer but he had to die sometime in the future. Also Shadowpaw is being the new medicine cat apprentice, but Alderheart will be the next medicine cat if Jayfeather dies before Shadowpaw's training will be complete. Next chapter will hopefully be up by tonight.**


	20. Final Showdown

The next morning Molewhsiker organizes a patrol to search and attack Bramblestar. Many eager cats join in wanting vengeance against him as they left; Alderheart was put in charge of the camp and to watch over Cherryfall. The cats left in a rally to getting rid of him for the last time.

Bramblestar woke up on the hot and muggy day; it was so humid that the lake soil was much more loosely packed down making digging easier for those that wanted a drink. He got his stiff body up as he padded down to the lake to look for prey. He looked up seeing several clouds forming in the sky, could it possibly rain later? He padded along as he caught a familiar yet peculiar scent at the lake as he began to walk to see who the scent was belonging to. His short but robust legs were all he needed to get to where he needed to go.

The scent belonged to Gastonia who was heading onto the lake with his head just hovering above the ground. It was clear that he was trying to sniff out water for survival. Although Gastonia's vision was poor, he was relying on the entourage of crows to act as lookouts for predators. His incredible sense of smell is signaling to his brain that there might be water just underneath the soil. Soon he was getting ready to dig, he knew that it wouldn't take much to get to the water below and on full alert were his lookout the crows.

Gastonia soon finds a promising spot on the lakebed and he began digging with one of his paws. If he could have smelled water, the water couldn't be more than a foot deep. But Bramblestar was looking sustenance too; he was using the lakebed to hunt for dead or dying prey. Due to his exile he was forced to scavenge for food and there was not a lot to eat. He knew dead prey was fine but it wasn't as nutritious as fresh meat. He knew he had to get fuel for his body so he looked hard to find where the mutt was. His sense of smell was just as good as Gastonia's.

Bramblestar began to plan on how he can ambush the mutt, he knew chasing and fighting for his meals will use up precious energy and it would also risk injury. The drought and his exile has driven him out of his favorite hunting grounds, but he would try to use surprise as a weapon whenever he could. He knew if he could if he could come in quiet enough, he could reach underneath and rip Gastonia open without him realizing what has hit him as he padded down to the deepest part of the lake where his prize was waiting. What he didn't realize that the lookout were on full alert. The crows spot Bramblestar long before he had the chance to run in. They take off screeching at the top of their longs that a predator was nearby as they flew away. It was clear that the mutt has taken the crows with him was that they could act like an alarm if danger was nearby.

Gastonia soon raises his head when he heard the screeching of the crows figuring out what is going on. His poor eyesight doesn't spot Bramblestar but his sense of smell does though. He soon picks up the scent of what direction Bramblestar was coming from and pinpoint where he was at this moment. So Gastonia turns broadside to his attacker. He knew he didn't have the claws or teeth of Bramblestar, so his only weapon to him was his tail. Gastonia began to swish his tail from side to side trying to warn Bramblestar not to get near him. The large clumps of hard fur on the sides of his tail acted in a similar fashion to the teeth of a tree eater. If Bramblestar got to close, he would have a nasty surprise waiting for him.

Bramblestar padded to the bottom of the lake, he knew he has lost to element of surprise but all he cares is sinking the claws of his back paws to do the dirty work and take the mutt out quickly. But his fur would not penetrate the mutt's tough fur. Also with prey scarce, both animals must also conserve energy and not attack recklessly. Gastonia in his condition can go a quarter of a moon without eating. But Bramblestar being much more active has a higher demand for nourishment; he would have a hard time going more than three days without a morsel. He knew being much more active has a price to pay, it required a greater deal of prey for fuel.

Bramblestar soon began to leap in to try to claw at the mutts legs but he swings his tail in the direction he was coming from. No matter what Bramblestar did, Gastonia was going to make sure that he was going to shift sideways to make sure that his flanks were safely protected. The terrain was also proving to be tough against Bramblestar. His large claws and paws were not good at keeping a grip on the sandy soil, he was more used to the forest where the earth was packed down hard and the trees can provide cover to break up his silhouette. Gastonia's larger paws with thicker pads underneath, makes him more stable on the shifting soft sand.

Bramblestar knew that he was smaller than the mutt but he was used to fighting on the backs of his opponents. But having the height advantage was downright useless due to the thick fur on his back especially when he was fighting Gastonia, he thought of it as being a disadvantage. Instead Bramblestar thought about crouching lower than the mutt can squat so he can get underneath and launch a much more effective attack from below. Bramblestar knew that Gastonia had a few places on his body that were not well protected. He knew he had to focus on his legs, his underbelly and maybe even underneath the base of his tail. He knew those were the areas that he knew he had to focus on when he launches his attacks.

Bramblestar ran forward leaping five feet into the air as he jumped over before the mutt's tail can land a hit on him. Bramblestar lands on the other side of Gastonia, and he quickly whirls around as his front left paw swung open as his claws came out as he inflicts a deep cut into the side of the mutt's underbelly. Gastonia yelped at this when he felt the scratch as he tried to get his tail back into position. But Bramblestar quickly leaps aside to avoid it. Bramblestar recognizes that if he could inflict a couple more injuries, he knew that Gastonia would slowly bleed to death. Bramblestar also learns that he only reacted but he couldn't plan ahead.

Gastonia knew he wasn't as smart as Bramblestar, but he knew quickly how to defend himself from the angry leader that wanted to go after as he padded to the left of him. Bramblestar jumps his body over him but this time he was ready. Gastonia soon turns his flanks torwards Bramblestar and tempts him by giving him an opening. Bramblestar soon lands and he spins to attack, and he steps directly into the very spot that his tail and the mutt's fur comes together. He reached out with a paw claws out ready to scratch his leg but he felt a series of knives penetrating his hip, it was clear that Gastonia has hit him with his tail and he skids a tail length away from him. Bramblestar began to back up while Gastonia lashes his tail from side to side. Bramblestar who couldn't handle it as he slowly backed away before he fell to the ground. Gastonia looked over seeing about four large holes in Bramblestar's hip and thigh of his back left leg.

Gastonia also knew he could only focus on one thing at a time to prevent overheating from stress, know he knew it was time to search for water. Bramblestar who was down on the ground was panting from the heat; he didn't want to give up so he got up as he was ready for round two. He had the intellect advantage over the mutt. Bramblestar doesn't just react to the environment around him, he could plan ahead to launch further attacks.

"I got to form a bold new plan of attack." Bramblestar thought to himself as planned out what to do next.

 **[A/N]: This fight is being broken up into two parts due to how much time was used typing this. The second part will be up soon. I also strangely thought of Bramblestar as a giant raptor attacking a thickly armored herbivore. But does Bramblestar have the guts to take him down. Find out.**


	21. Final Showdown Part 2

Bramblestar could use his quickness to scare and confuse his opponents. He would even sometimes directly run at them, limiting the time they had to react.

Braamblestar recognizes the soft unprotect skin and fur on the mutt's front legs. When the mutt turns right to guard his flanks, he seized an opportunity. Leaning down, he clamps his jaws around the mutt's front right leg and he began to pulls back. As he ripped back, he began to chew a large gash from under the thick matted fur. Gastonia was yelping as he fought Bramblestar for his leg to be out of his mouth but his back teeth was slicing his leg like a pair of wood cutting saws. Soon with enough force, he pulls his leg out from the cat's mouth. And as a result it knocks a good amount of teeth out of Bramblestar, Mainly incisors and canines. Bramblestar hissed as he tasted blood which came from where his teeth used to be. The teeth lay scattered on the ground and he knew his mouth was soon no longer useful.

Gastonia was soon howling in agony as blood gushed from his leg where Bramblestar had clamped onto. He soon knew he had been injured by the cat and he was in terrible pain. He couldn't apply a lot of weight on the injured limb so he now had to now turn his tail against Bramblestar on only three legs. Soon he kept the injured leg curled up underneath to try to protect it from any further damage.

Bramblestar had the perfect opportunity to have his shot at his, he has inflicted the injury and he knew if he could do it a couple more time it would be goodbye to Gastonia and game over for the mutt. Bramblestar was soon padding around to see where he could inflict the next serious injury and due to his injury, he knew Gastonia wouldn't be going anywhere and he would be dead from blood loss in the next couple of hours. As he moved to the back leg to impair it, Gastonia soon found this to be an opportunity for payback as he neared his tail. He shifted a bit to the right to show that he wasn't afraid of wielding a tail that would most likely inflict injury. Another thing that would make the job easier was the drought has weakened Bramblestar down and he knew he would break the leg bone with a lot of force if it was like a twig.

Bramblestar soon darted to the back leg as he used one of his back paws to slice his left flank open before he had to dodge Gastonia's swinging tail, as a result the cut wasn't as big as he wanted it to be as he soon got ready to attack as he darted around wanting the mutt to make the wrong move. However he was preparing for payback as he felt an adrenaline rush as he tempted Bramblestar to the base of his tail. Although his tail was very heavy due to the clumps of hard fur running along both sides, he was able to swing it at an uncontrollable speed. He knew this was his only chance of winning.

Bramblestar was soon distracted as he darted, backing up trying to avoid his tail. He was unaware he was moving into the perfect position for him. Bramblestar saw this as the perfect chance of finishing his opponent off but he had wandered into a trap. Bramblestar rushes forward hoping the mutt would be too slow to react. But Gastonia knew he had swung his tail at the perfect time. As Bramblestar landed a couple of inches short of his target, he felt something slice into his ankle and he yowled finding out he had be caught.

Gastonia soon knew his tail had swung at him and the giant clumps of fur were slicing through the soft skin and thin layer of muscles that were from Bramblestar. Bramblestar was soon yowling in pain as he went berserk trying to free himself. He rakes his claws alongside the mutts back but that was completely useless. The hard fur was cutting along his leg as it grinds along his ankle bone as Bramblestar screeches in pain. Bramblestar soon frees himself trying desperately to regen his footing, but Gastonia wasn't done with him just yet. Gastonia soon began to swing his tail from side to side as like a cat being trapped in a bramble nest. The sharp pieces of fur slice through the soft skin and thin flesh of the frail former Thunder-clan leader. Bramblestar was still screeching as he felt like his blood and flesh was on fire and being sliced open in battle when he felt something break in his leg. Bramblestar soon had enough of this, as he hopped backwards to avoid any more of this type of attack when his broken leg gave on him and soon Bramblestar collapsed to the ground. It was clear, that Gastonia has won the battle.

He soon turns his head staring at a collapsed Bramblestar, he was soon able to determine that he was unable to continue the fight. Instead of helping an injured cat like he would normally do, he turned away and he went back to his search for water. Bramblestar passes out from this being too much for him.

Bramblestar soon woke up three hours later, and he saw Gastonia was gone, he was all alone and bleeding from his injuries. It was clear that his fruitless attempt at hunting under the blazing sun has taken a heavy toll on him. His injuries, heat stress and lack of food have all but killed him. He continued to lay there as the minutes ticked by wondering if help was going to save him. But no one will come so he closes his eyes for the final time and he fell limp as his last life slipped out of him. Soon he was off to join Star-clan for good.

Later the rally party checked the lake and sees if Bramblestar was there, what the saw was a cat that looked like him, as they gather around his broken body; they confirmed that it was him. They collected him up as they all, brought him to the large beech tree to bury him. The entire clan was sad knowing that they had lost their leader because of this. Even though they hated him at this point, they still felt sorry for him for being a great leader for the clan. As they said their goodbyes to their leader, they felt a change was in the wind. Soon the clans were going to get drenched with the much needed rain that they wanted for moons.

 **[A/N]: Bramblestar has finally died. But what about the mutt he fought up against? Where did he end up? Keep reading the hopefully last three chapters to find out where their friend has ended up. Next chapter will be up about tomorrow. If not I'll tell you.**


	22. Rain

Chapter 20

Soon as nighttime rolled in, the clouds grew thicker, it was clear to the clan cats that the drought was finally over, but the rain came down hard over the cats, Thunder-clan soon evacuated their camp thinking their camp would flood, soon the other clans followed to avoid the downpour. The clans all met up where the Mutts were hiding from the storm, inside a large barn. Once they arrived, the mutts greeted them.

"Did you come because of the downpour?" One of them asked curious.

"Yes we need shelter, this rain is a lot worse than what we were used to." Mistystar mewed.

"You're free to stay." The leader said wanting them to stay.

"Thanks." Molewhisker mewed seeing how the mutts were still kind to them.

It was clear that the rain will last for days. Since the drought brought havoc to the landscape, the thirsty plants and soil were absorbing as much water as they could before they became over saturated. To the point where the soil gave way causing minor mudslides around the clan's territories. The Mutts and clan cats soon began to do their usual conversations. But when Poppyfrost asked about Gastonia, she was frightened.

"Hes?" She mewed.

"Gone." The leader said.

"What happened to him?" Poppyfrost mewed distressed.

"He told us he was going to get water from the lake, but the crows screeched when they flew followed by lots of barking and hissing. Then some long-paws came into the picture and they picked him up and carried him off. It looked like a cat had torn his teeth into his front right leg because I remember it being bright red. And we looked out onto the lake, we saw Bramblestar who must have died while attacking Gastonia." The leader told her everything he could remember.

"Two-legs have taken him! Will he come back?" Poppyfrost mewed.

"It is uncertain." The leader told her bluntly.

"Always have hope?" She asked.

"Always have hope." He responded.

"Poppyfrost! Poppyfrost come quick!" Alderheart mewed.

"What is it?" She mewed puzzled.

"It's Cherryfall, she just had her kits!" Alderheart mewed excited. Poppyfrost followed him.

Alderheart lead Poppyfrost to the upper section of the barn where the queens and kits were. The seen found Cherryfall in a section of the barn as she was looking out of the water stained window. Huddled underneath her in the hay, was three kits. A dark ginger she, a ginger she and a tortoiseshell and white tom. Poppyfrost declared the tom-kit her new favorite kit.

"How are you feeling my kit?" She mewed as she licked the new queen.

"I'm fine mom I'm all right." Cherryfall mewed as she huddled around her new kits. "Alderheart told me to be calm and his experience helped me when I had them."

"I'm glad that you and your kits are safe." She mewed as mewed as she took a look at her grand-kits. "What are you going to name them?" She mewed curious.

"I'm still thinking about that." Cherryfall answered.

"Okay." She mewed as Alderheart padded back with a fresh mouse and some borage leaves.

"Eat this; you will have milk for the kits." Alderheart mewed as he gave them to her. Cherryfall ate them up eagerly as she fell fast asleep.

A couple of days later, everything was good, but it was still raining hard, the lake was only partly filled as the cats got back from a wet patrol.

"How long will it keep raining?" Asked Thornclaw.

"First we get extreme drought now we get downpour." Molewhisker mewed.

"Hopefully it will end soon." Squirrelflight mewed to them.

"I know a story to cheer you up." One of the mutts said.

"Oh great here we go." Mistystar mewed annoyed by the stories of nonsense the mutts would always fill their heads.

"Okay the story is how? How? I got nothing." The mutt said.

"Oh great there goes anyway of having some kind of good old jokes for the reader to enjoy." Cloudtail mewed with disappointment.

"Well this story is almost done so there's nothing to complain about." Molewhisker mewed.

Cherryfall was huddling her kits close to her. She still didn't name them yet because she was still recovering from kitting. Berrynose went over to greet his kit.

"They are here already? Must have been under poppy seeds when you had them." He mewed.

"Yes, considering we're still young makes you and Poppyfrost old." She giggled thinking it was funny.

"Yeah then your kits have more kits, then those kits have even more kits." Berrynose said as he nuzzled his kit. "No matter you many moons you are, you will always be my kit." He said as he helped her kits to sleep.

"At least you're feeling better." She mewed.

"And one of those kits looks like Poppyfrost." He mewed at the tom kit and she huddled him close.

"I want her to name him." She mewed as she fell asleep.

"See you later." Berrynose mewed as he padded off.

The rain continued pouring down hard as the lake was slowly refilling. Many cats were quickly getting tired of the rain. And since the dogs had officially run out of ideas to keep the cats happy, they just stood there and slept. As well as doing their normal duties in patrolling the perimeter. But then after a quarter-moon of nonstop downpour, the sun shines on a water logged landscape. A couple of dogs on patrol went and saw torrents of water pouring out of the lake as the new water cascaded from the mountains. All the cats headed outside as their paws got drenched by the dew droplets that have collected on the grass due to the massive storm they have had. It was too late in the Greenleaf season for the leaves to grow back but it would take a while before everything would once again be completely healthy to support large animals. Cherryfall padded out with her new kits though their eyes didn't open yet. She was excited to go home.

"Have you named them yet?" Molewhisker mewed to his sister about the new kits.

"Yes I have actually." She mewed. "This ones Bramblekit." She mewed pointing at the dark ginger she kit. "This one's Featherkit." She mewed pointing at the ginger she kit. "And this ones Juniperkit." She mewed point to the tortoiseshell and white tom kit.

"Thank you for giving me a name suckle mother." Juniperkit mewed his first words despite his eyes still being shut.

"Well that's nice to hear." Molewhisker mewed as he cuddled with his littermate. "I have to say goodbye to some friends." He mewed as he padded off.

Molewhisker soon arrived as he began to bid his farewells to the dogs.

"Well I guess this means goodbye." Molewhisker mewed.

"Goodbye?" Asked one of the younger mutts confused.

"Yeah we're going home. You're staying here." Molewhisker mewed.

"Well I guess this does mean goodbye." The leader said as he appreciated the company. "If our friend comes back, we'll let you know and we wish you luck on the long road ahead." He happily said giving his wishes for a bright future ahead.

"Thanks." Molewhisker mewed as he led his clan back to camp.

Molewhisker soon lead his clan back to camp as he looked alongside the muddy banks which were filled with foot prints that were left from thirsty animals, running together. He knew the rain would be the beginning of new life.

 **[A/N]: Cherryfall has had her kits, the rain and the water has returned and Molewhisker is on his way of being the new leader of Thunder-clan. The Epilogue will be posted tonight as well as giving my thanks, some trivia and some mistakes I've made while writing this. Hope you enjoyed this since the story is coming to a close.**


	23. Epilogue

It has been a moon since the drought has ended, clan life was returning to normal, prey was returning on a large scale and the ash that had lain on the trees from the forest fire had been washed off to fertilize the land for the rest of the remaining time of Greenleaf. Molestar was soon happy to see clan life was returning to normal. He had elected Poppyfrost to be the new deputy as he felt that the clans would slowly return to normal. Cloudtail, Squirrelflight, Leafpool and many of the older cats have retired to the elders den making the den more crowded, but it did mean they can catch up on old times when they were younger. Cherryfall's kits were in good health, they were feeding well and behaving like normal kits would. Molestar was preparing to go to the gathering when he paid Jayfeather a visit.

"How's Shadowpaw's training?" Asked Molestar.

"He's very eager at what he's doing and is putting the dedication into his hard work." Jayfeather mewed excited.

"Tell him to keep up the good work." Molestar mewed.

Soon Molestar checked up on Berrynose who has fully recovered from the throat gash.

"How are you feeling?" Asked Molestar

"I'm feeling better, I can talk and breathe without any problems." He mewed.

"I'm glad to hear that." He mewed happy to see one of his cats was feeling better.

Molestar soon took Poppyfrost, Alderheart and two new warriors to the gathering when they arrived the clans greeted them seeing that they were all happy for their arrival but one cat was happier than all the other cats at the gathering, It was Moltedclaw.

"Haven't seen you in a while Molewhisker." Moltedclaw greeted him happily.

"It's Molestar, I've just became the new leader of Thunder-clan." He corrected him.

"Well I'm happy to have my neck fixed so I can be able to talk again since I wasn't able to talk for a while." He told him.

"I'm happy to see that we're all doing well. Harestar mewed at them.

"I'm sorry for what happened to what happened to Onestar." Molestar mewed.

"It's fine. He died trying to protect Moltedclaw, we had to lie about him being dead so he wouldn't attack us. He put up a good fight." Harestar mewed.

"I feel your pain." Molestar mewed.

Molestar was quickly interrupted as a familiar gold and white mutt padded over the bridge to the gathering island, his fur was no longer matted together and his tail was a fluffy gold and white and it was looking like a dog tail. He looked like he had a clean cut as he looked more dog than before, a large bandage was wrapped around his front right leg where Bramblestar had bit him and a large bright green collar was around his neck reading his name. Poppyfrost quickly recognized who he was as she ran over with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Gastonia? Is that you? It is you!" Poppyfrost mewed as she ran and tackled him happy as ever.

"It's me." He said knowing that the cat who care for him was finally there to greet him for the first time in moons.

"You look more like a dog. What happened to you?" Poppyfrost mewed.

"You see me and Bramblestar got into a fight because he wanted to kill me and I killed him indirectly. Then I collapsed onto the lakebed due to my leg that was bleeding so much. Then some long-paws came along and took me in to save me, and now I have a home that is on the border with River-clan." Gastonia happily told Poppyfrost about what happened to him.

"I'm still so happy that you're here." Poppyfrost mewed happily. "Now I can teach you how to fight like a real dog." She mewed to him happily.

"I know I want to get started soon." He happily yelped.

Soon the gathering was a success as the new leaders were taken in as the gathering was conducted. Molestar looked up into the sky as Bramblestar in the form of a star, who was looking down from the heavens at the new leader.

"I'm sorry that this had to happen. I wish the drought would have been a lot better." He mewed with sorrow as he padded home.

 **[A/N]: This fanfic has finally come to an end. It took longer than I expected with end of semester tests but I did my best to get this completed for you and your viewing pleasure. I hope you all enjoyed it and I should give my honor of completing my first story.**

 **In thanks of:**

 **Pebblwish: I really like your stories and I would consider your ideas for future stories.**

 **Hazel Ashwood: Thank you for favorite.**

 **SwiftyOwO: Thank you for following and your favorite and big thank you for review. I appreciate it.**

 **KnightLawn: Thank you for your review.**

 **Trivia:**

 **The mutt gang is a bunch of OC's that will get their own story in the near future if I continue to get likes. Gastonia is the one that has a name.**

 **Bramblestar's mad behavior was most likely caused by brain damage he sustained in the very beginning of the story which ultimately led to his downfall.**

 **I was also going to utilize other cats such as Lionblaze, apprentices and kits. But I had to focus down to a select few to make the story a bit shorter so I don't go into filler.**

 **Gastonia's character was based on Polocanthinae of the same name. In fact much of his tail was patterned of after the actual creature. He loses this feature when the story is over since he's a dog.**

 **This fanfic likes to take jabs at the fourth wall since it's a fanfic and not an actual story. Such as bringing up other movies or just talking about Moonkitti in general. The mutts run out of these ideas at the very end due to me wanting to finish this or just being dry on ideas.**

 **This fanfic also plenty of "The Isle" references or just references to Dinosaurs in general, an example of this would be the Honk story where the Ankys just smash the legs of Theris that are called "Danger Floofs." This is also a reference to "Honk."**

 **The drought most likely took place from May to August since Greenleaf is the hottest time of the year. Plus the story ends in September just before leaf-fall begins.**

 **Molestar made Poppyfrost the next Deputy because he wanted to make his mother special.**

 **Mistakes:**

 **Even though this was my first fanfic and I wanted it to make it as good as possible, there were still some errors I made. Here are the mistakes I've made.**

 **Mistystar was called "Miststar" for a good amount of the beginning of the story. I change this error when finding out her actual name was Mistystar.**

 **Onestar would have been dead in this story since it would have taken place after the actual books. So I had him die towards the end of the story when the clans find out of his death. I also didn't know about Harestep being the deputy. So I wanted to get this addressed.**

 **I didn't know about Alderheart being the medicine cat until some point of the fanfic since I wanted to ship him and Cherryfall who I wanted to have kits since they were both ginger colored cats. I decided to make Alderheart give up his position as Medicine cat so he can enjoy his family and let Shadowpaw take his place. However, Alderheart would be the next medicine cat if Jayfeather dies before Shadowpaw's training would be complete.**

" **Possible":**

 **One of Cherryfall's kits is a tortoiseshell and white tom despite both of his parents both being ginger cats. He most likely got his colors from Poppyfrost who is Cherryfall's mother.**

 **Squirrelflight would most likely be leader of Thunder-clan instead of Molewhisker since she was the deputy. However, due to the fact that she was pretty old alongside a good number of cats, I've decided to retire them all to the elders den so the mutts had to test the younger cats to see who the best option was to make a good leader was for the clan.**

 **If you spot anymore references and/or errors. Notify me about this because I was most likely not able to get them all. I hope you all enjoyed this. This Fanfic is now Complete.**


End file.
